New World Bound
by Crazyman321
Summary: It's been 25 years since the Strawhats made their debut and a newcomer has decided to set sail from the West blue on his journey towards the allusive treasure, One Piece. His goal: World Domination! Accepting fan characters!
1. Goodbye, Hanabi Island

_Twenty-five years ago the infamous Strawhat Pirates set sail into the New World in order to chase after their dreams. Perhaps in a perfect world Luffy could've made it to Raftel and become the new pirate king. Though this world is far from perfect. The Strawhats sailed the New World for years before being crushed by the marines. Although they did escape no one really knows what has happened to them. The crew has split up and each gone their own ways. Why? This question has yet to be answered as well. Several of them indeed managed to complete their life's dream but the true mystery is what happened to their captain, Monkey D. Luffy, who hasn't been seen since._

_The marines hoped the crushing defeat of these criminals and several other famous crews would put an end to the era of pirates but instead it sparked new dreamers as well. Many saw the valiant efforts of this 'nobody crew' and began to think if they too could make it. This hasn't changed much over the years, and so, another dreamer leaves his homeland and steps out into the endless ocean._

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 1: Goodbye, Hanabi Island**

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Off somewhere in the West blue resides a small island. The moon rested overhead and dimly illuminated the homes and other various buildings. It was your average town with nothing that would make it stick out from any other; though one oddity was the fact that all of the lights were turned out, giving the island the appearance of a ghost town.

Featureless shadows, that were obviously people, passed back and forth through the streets though most of them seemed to be horded at a small town square. All was quiet until a flare shot into the sky, it left a streaking trail of smoke behind it and moments later exploded into a bright display of colorful sparks that suddenly lit up the island. The smiling faces of people could now be seen along with another figure a couple miles away, separated from the joyous faces of the others

A young man lied on the roof of a house across town. Next to him was a bit of equipment. He had his arms behind his head resting across the cool rooftop and a leg up and crossed over the other. In his mouth was a chocolate bar that he allowed to sit there lazily. The boy seemed no older than 19. He had messy, swept back grey hair with a pair of goggles on his forehead. Along with that he wore a black under armor shirt with a crimson red, thin overcoat, black pants and plain black shoes.

He groaned a bit as the islands firework display came to an end and he sat up. Finishing the sweet, he steadily aligned the unknown piece of equipment beside him and grinned before pulling out a lighter and lighting the fuse. "I'll miss this place." Was all he said before hopping off the small building and walking towards the water. Several glaring rockets were let out from the device and in moments collided with a small house setting it ablaze in a brilliant show of colors and sparks, his own little fireworks show.

As the boy reached the dock and a small canoe (with what was obviously a homemade sail due to its horrible quality) he found someone in a marine uniform resting at the water's edge.

When the marine spotted him he suddenly jumped to his feet.. "Hideo, what the hell do you think you're doing setting that place on fire! What if someone was in there and got hurt you damn idiot!" He yelled in a tone lacking anger and contained a bit more humor than anything else.

The boy, now known as Hideo, scratched his head and thought about it. "Guess I didn't really think that through," He muttered as if it were no big deal. "It was all part of leaving things behind, Roland." Hideo attempted to walk on and towards the ship, but Roland stood in front of him, arms spread out.

"You can't just go out to sea on a whim, on a stupid dream!" He screamed at him with a bit of passion in his voice. He would've continued speaking but he felt something slam into his leg, knocking him down and into the soft sand beneath him, a foot rested on top of his chest, pinning him down.

Hideo stood above him, pressing a bit more weight on his foot with each passing moment. "I know we've been best friends since we were kids, and when you followed your dream to be a marine I was happy for you." Hideo suddenly pulled out what looked like a stick of dynamite. "But don't you ever insult my goals again!" he finished. There was anger in his voice but that same rage never reached his face as he seemed to be on the verge of tears. Walking past the marine, he rubbed his eyes on the sleeve of his coat and hopped on the tiny vessel. He let down the sail and slowly but surely managed to pick up wind.

Roland stood up and brushed himself off. "On the account of us being friends I'll let you go for now. But tell, me what do you wish to accomplish? To be the pirate king, to be rich and famous, or are you in it for the adventure?"

Hideo grinned for a moment; a grin that oddly enough reassured to Roland things would be alright. "Roland, please give me more credit than that," Hideo then began to inhale a large amount of air into his chest. "I'm going to take over the world!" He announced loud enough for nearly the entire island to hear. The flames from his own fireworks show still continued to burn as he sat down and let the currents take him away.

_"Goodbye, Hanabi Island…"_

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So yeah, that the introduction. I know it's not that long or exciting, but it's more just exposition. Future chapters should be much more interesting and longer.

I know these kinds of stories are fairly common, though I wanted to change mine up a bit. Instead of the usual 'the strawhats all accomplished their goals and Luffy died as pirate king' I decided to go with the opposite and have the crew going their own ways.

Now as I said, I will be taking fan characters to use in the story. They can be just about anything from the One Piece world so don't try to limit them to just new characters for the crew.

Name/Nickname: (Nicknames would be things like the names used on bounty posters and etc.)

Age:

Appearance:

Affiliation: (pirate, marine, bounty hunter, etc.)

Personality:

History:

Other: (Anything else you may want to say about your character)

Devil Fruit: (leave this space blank if they don't have one)

Weapons:

Attacks: (Can be named or unnamed like Mouton Shot or Gomu Gomu Pistol. Though be aware that if you don not name or give your entered character's attacks I will do it myself.)


	2. Greetings From the Manly Captain!

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 2: Greetings From the Manly Captain!**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners.(forgot to put this in the first chapter)

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It had been nearly a week since Hideo Katsua had set off from his home island to travel the wide sea, though the main issue at the time being was his lack of preparation, namely, food. With tired arms he pushed the tiny two-man boat across the surface of the water. Though the ore he was using was oversized and awkward. A couple days before he had been caught in a terrible storm and his makeshift sail fell to pieces. "Man, those were my best bed sheets too," he muttered in a less then energetic tone. He continued to row nevertheless, at this point, what choice did he have?

x-x-x-x

On a quiet West Blue Island it was a bit past midnight as a rather large figure ran frantically through the forest. On the other side of this dense mass of timber and vegetation was a large pirate ship, it sat at the shoreline waiting for him. The clouds began to part and the moon illuminated the area, the figure was shown to actually be a pretty bulky man, drenched in sweat and a red substance that was more than likely blood. His body was covered in injuries and he even had an arrow jutting out from his back.

He breathed heavily as he struggled to even stand, let alone run with such haste. "I'm almost there," he managed to gasp out between breaths. An arrow suddenly found its way through and lodge itself in a nearby tree. The pirate was relieved to see that it had missed him. "You'll never catch me now, once I reach the shore the rest of my crew will easily take you out!"

Stepping out of the forest his heavy feet plodded through the sand until he reached a large Galleon. Despite his size he managed to vault himself over the side of the ship and onto the deck. Though his face quickly paled at what he saw.

Men's bodies scattered about the deck of the ship with arrows protruding from their lifeless bodies. He could then hear footstep in the sand before the one who had been chasing him managed to reach the deck as well.

Dull eyes stared back at the pirate; they were brown and bright in the moonlight. "I allowed you to reach the ship by my own choice, it was too much of a nuisance to attempt to kill you in the woods," He stated rather blandly before pulling back the string on his weapon, a longbow, about 5 feet in length. "Goodbye Captain Allende."

There was an earsplitting cry before the sound of something heavy hitting the sand below the ship. The archer said nothing as he began to collect his used arrows from the corpses.

x-x-x-x

Hideo looked into the clear blue water with a crazed look on his face. He hadn't eaten in five days and it was driving him insane. There was also the fact that his navigational skills were mediocre at best so he had no idea where he was headed. He held a fishing net in hand as his tongue slowly wiped over his lips. "I'm gonna get you fishy." He called before swiping at the water and failing to catch it in the net. Frustrated, he tossed of his coat and leaped into the water.

"I won't be outdone by a fish!" He snapped his goggles over his eyes and scanned the waters until he spotted the one that got away. He grinned and swam towards it but as he got closer to the creature something odd happened. He felt weak and his vision suddenly blurred. His body was giving in due to the lack of food.

Knowing he was at his limit for the time being, he attempted to swim back to the ship but couldn't make it. His arms and legs gave in and he began to sink like a stone as a school of fish suddenly surged by him. Then there were voices as he was suddenly lifted into the air. "Sir, I think we caught a…a person?"

He woke up several hours later on the deck of a huge ship. Large men ran to and fro as more and more fish were picked up onto the boat. "What's going on?" He groaned lazily as it started coming back to him. He suddenly jumped to his feet, though his legs were pretty shaky they managed to sustain his weight. "Where's my ship? With my stuff?"

The fishermen on board all looked to him briefly before getting back to work. "Captain'll be with ya shortly." One of them said and left it at that. Hideo suddenly ran to the edge of the ship and looked over to see if he could find anything but to no luck. Moments later a muscular man came out wearing a soaked wetsuit and smoking a bubble pipe for some reason. He seemed middle aged as his hair was grey and beginning to thin a bit. There were also the slowly forming wrinkles appearing as well.

"Welcome aboard the SS Manly!" He called joyously as he walked on board. The rest of the fishing crew seemed to liven up a bit at the sound of this, but Hideo was not amused.

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but can you tell me what happened to my ship?" the captain frowned and looked to him, an eyebrow raised.

"Ya mean that lil' dinghy we grabbed? It's tied to the back of our manly. It's a bit on the wimpy side don't you think?" A tower of bubbles suddenly rose from his pipe and seemed to hang in the air a bit before popping.

"Um, sure." To be honest, Hideo had no plans on sticking around here with these weirdos, but thinking into it a bit they had to have some food around this joint, didn't they? "Hey, captain, um, Manly. You have any food on here, I've been sailing for a while and haven't eaten."

"Woah, are you psychic or sumtin'? You perfectly guessed my name without me even having to tell ya!" The man seemed excited and gave Hideo a hardy slap on the back that nearly sent the pirate sprawling to the ground. "Come on, I'll show ya the mess hall."

Hideo followed a bit reluctantly though eased the tension by piquing at his curiosity a bit. "So, captain Manly, why do you smoke a bubble pipe anyway?" It wasn't something that was bothering him too much, but he still wanted to know.

"Oh?" Was the man's first response, he seemed somewhat surprised. "No one's asked me that in a while. Well, in my younger years I used to smoke a lot though the doc says I shouldn't anymore, could kill me and all. But it was a habit I couldn't quit so I just smoke this t'ing right here." He smiled before more bubbles blew from the wooden instrument.

After a gracious feast of fish, some fish, and a little bit more fish Hideo was ready to depart. "Well, thanks for the meal, but I should get going." He began to walk to the back of the ship where his boat was located but the captain's arm blocked his way. "Hm?'

"I've been meaning to ask," for the first time since Hideo had met this man, his voice was actually serious instead of his usual jolly tone, "What's a young'n like you doing out alone at sea like this anyway?" The other men on board, who had previously kept away from the outsider all turned an ear to hear his response.

"Um." He scratched his head a bit; he didn't want to tell these guys he was a pirate. Who knew how they would react to news like that. It didn't take much brain to know that most people would look down on a pirate, someone who made a living off someone else's misfortune. "I'm a bounty hunter, just starting out and have been looking for a place to get some rest." It was the first thing that came to mind, it was simple and pretty believable.

The men onboard however all suddenly burst into laughter though upon hearing the response. Some even dropped their fishing rods into the ocean or nearly fell into the water themselves. Needless to say, Hideo suddenly felt a bit nervous. What would make them laugh like this?

Manly wiped a tear from his eye and handed Hideo another 'playful' slap on the back. "A young'n like you, chasin' after pirates?" Another fit of laughter came and went as bits of saliva flew from his mouth and onto Hideo's face. When things seemed to settle down the captain finally gave Hideo a response. "Well, you say you've been looking for a place to get some good shut eye, the island's right over there." He pointed a finger to a landscape in the distance, judging by how far it was, they would hit land in a couple hours. "Our home, Bausyer Island," Manly stated proudly

In almost an instant Hideo face lit up. After spending about a week sleeping in a rocking wooden boat over dangerous waters a bed sounded pretty nice right about now.

x-x-x-x

Once they got off the ship and Hideo managed to collect some things (including his coat) from his they entered town. Manly had even promised to let Hideo sleep at his place that night. "No need to waste your money on one of those damn hotels," had been his exact words. The way he said it made it seem as if Hideo had no choice but to agree to it.

Entering the streets of the town on Bausyer Island there actually wasn't much to see, though despite being such a small island it seemed to have a huge population. Hideo probably would've struggled to get through the streets if he hadn't stood behind the much larger, Captain Manly, who everyone seemed to know as he got greetings from anyone who spotted him. Not like spotting a six foot tall buff man in a soaked wetsuit was that difficult.

He he had no idea, but Hideo had soon found himself in an enormous bar somewhere on the island. It was a bit past 7 and the sun had just gone down. "Hey son, you much of a drinker?" Manly began to question as he ordered rounds for his entire crew. They cheered and broke into dance in the middle of the pub.

Excitement seemed to become contagious around the area as more and more men joined in on the merriment. Some of the men jumped on the tables and began to dance and eventually everyone joined together in song.

Hideo stared at the glass of beer handed to him, hesitant.

"Did ya not hear me boy? How much of a drinker are ya?" A cloud of bubbles blew from his pipe as he took in almost half the glass of bear in one go.

"Sorry, no," was all Hideo said in response. He turned to the barkeeper. "You got any strawberry milk, or maybe ice cream. I'll eat just about anything sweet actually." The man shook his head saying that all they was alcohol, causing Hideo's face to immediately sink.

"Come on boy, man up! A sip aint gonna kill you." Before he knew it everyone in the bar was staring at him and waiting for him to take a drink. He groaned a bit. If it took just a sip to get these guys off his back he was okay with that. He lifted the mug to his face and began to take the tiniest of drops of the liquid but a familiar hand planted itself onto his back causing him to take an entire mouthful. "Not much of drinker you say? Gahahaha!" the old man laughed as Hideo dropped the mug, feeling a bit dizzy.

In a matter minutes Hideo was full out drunk and dancing on the tables with the other men.

Hours passed and the men had now moved on to telling dangerous stories of their expeditions. At the moment the Manly crew was explaining how they had found the newcomer, Hideo.

"Why was he out there anyway?" One particular drunk stood up and asked before slouching back into his seat.

"Well, you see, the kid's a-"

"Pirate!" Hideo screamed out, he was barely standing as his body seemed as if it would give way at any moment. The fact that he continued drinking even after that first swallow hadn't helped his condition. He belched and sat back in his seat and for once the room was quiet. All eyes were on him, but for a different reason than earlier. There was silence in the bar.

"Did you say pirate?" Manly finally said, a bit hesitant at first, it was almost as if he was frightened.

"You bet your ass I did!" Hideo's head suddenly fell forward and slammed into the counter. Manly reached an oversized hand over to his head and pulled at the messy gray hair to remove his face from the top.

"Leave this island, now." He said coldly. The once merry old man had suddenly become bitter. Hideo didn't seem to budge though.

"You said I could sleep at your place Manly, the sea is such a cold place you know." He reached at his face and pinched at one of the wrinkles. Manly was prepared to respond until a kitchen fork spun across the room and stuck into his head."

"Oh no,' he turned an eye to the door.

"See, I told you he was out drinking with his friends again mom." A boy no older than six stood in the doorway, thumb in his mouth. Standing above him was one angry woman. Hell, angry would be an understatement in this situation. She seemed to be in her twenties and had short cut blue hair.

Manly sighed and stood to his feet. "Sorry guys, party's over."

"Awwwwwww," was the simultaneous response of everyone in the room, sounding like a bunch of disappointed children. Manly simply swung Hideo over his shoulders and headed out the door.

"Dad, I swear…" the woman trailed off as she parted with the boy and the two captains.

x-x-x-x

"Ugh, my head is splitting." Hideo woke up the next morning with one hell of a hangover. He sat next to a river near the woods and splashed water into his dry face and red eyes. Today was the day he'd have to leave this place unfortunately.

_Flashback_

Hideo had just woken up that morning and suddenly clutched his head with hands. "What the hell is this?!"

"Gahahaha," came a familiar laugh. Manly entered the room and looked at Hideo with his usual cheerful face. "Can't trust you with secrets boy, one drink and you sing like a canary. Gahahaha." His laughing seemed to boom and echo inside and out of Hideo's head.

"What?" Was all he could manage.

"Now the whole town knows you're a pirate." Hideo looked up, eyes wide. What were they going to do with him? "Don't worry though, we won't bite. Just need you to leave while you can though. Pirates have been dying all over this island."

This came as a surprise to Hideo. "What do you mean?"

"Do I need to spell it out for ya? For the past two months every pirate or crew that has arrived on this island has been killed. The whole lot of 'em! The ships were then emptied of all valuables and then the ship along with their bodies were pushed out to sea. Just thought I'd let you know." Manly stepped out of the room and disappeared into another part of the house.

_Flashback End_

Who could've been doing it though, some vigilante hero? No, all the things were stolen from the ships. It couldn't have been bounty hunters either due to the fact that they pushed the pirate's body out to sea as well. Hideo stood to his feet once again. He hadn't completely gotten over his hangover but it would be good enough for him to get off the island.

There was suddenly the sound of leaves rustling and Hideo's eyes quickly dashed to the right. Nothing there. The wind perhaps? Something that did catch Hideo's eye though was the rather large hole in the trunk of the tree as well as red stain along the wood.

Before he could think into it anymore someone emerged from the trees. A young man, no older than eighteen showed himself, a longbow and quiver strapped to his back. Hazel brown eyes that seemed to shine even in the sunlight and looked at Hideo with a lifeless appearance.

"Hello, can I speak to you a moment?"

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Hope you guys enjoyed that chapter. Read, review, and keep those characters coming!


	3. The Broken Arrow

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners.

Man, this chapter went through a lot of revisions before being posted, hope you guys enjoy

There's also something nice for my readers in the A/N at the end of this chapter ^_^

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 3: The Broken Arrow**

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"Hello, can I speak to you a moment?" His voice came to the red eyed captain like a cold chill passing over his body. There was something strange about this guy. He had a lean figure with spiky black hair tied up at the top of his head with the hair at front flowing down either side of his, somewhat of a frame for his soft appearance. He wore a flowing white robe with dragons going across the sleeves and although Hideo couldn't see it the character for loyalty on the back. The robe was tucked into a dark blue hakama and for footwear he had sandals. There also seemed to be some sort of thick dark red leather armor over the right side of his chest to protect his heart.

Hideo splashed a bit more water on his face before responding, "Go ahead, shoot." He grinned at his own lame joke despite the fact that the archer didn't seem to catch it.

The boy bowed his head to Hideo before speaking, "My name is Takato Hiroyuki, first line of defense and personal guard of my lord, Captain Clayton." Hideo raised an eyebrow in both interest and surprise at this statement. Just then Takato picked his head up again and looked back at Hideo. "He would like to request you to join his pirate crew," Takato finshed his statement with loud and clear directive that suddenly caught Hideo off guard.

This was truly unexpected. "What makes him think I'd want to join a pirate crew, let alone have the skills required?"

"Don't try to play dumb, one of our crewmembers was in the bar last night when you told everyone ."

Hideo face palmed and wiped his face. "Ugh, a guy has a little alcohol and suddenly everyone's on his case about being a pirate. So what if I were to refuse?"

"Then I'd have to report to my master and give him your response. Though I will warn you now, refusing this offer would not be in your best interest." The last statement seemed much more serious and grave than anything he had said before.

Flashing a bold grin Hideo simply turned and walked back towards town. "Sorry, but I plan to sail under my own flag, thanks for the offer." He gave Takato a wave and took his leave for the forest.

Ther archer heaved a deep sigh. "Truly depressing," he muttered and left the woods as well.

x-x-x-x

Takato stood outside the entrance to an abandoned shipyard, pieces of old ship sat randomly about as wood rotted and steel continued to rust. The only thing that looked even half decent in this place was the pirate ship sitting at the docks. A pirate flag blew proudly in the wind above it; the flag depicted a smiling skull with a rather large mouth and instead of crossbones there were two crossing pair of maces.

As the archer entered this junkyard of dead ships he seemed to stop at its center, an area that was relatively cleared out besides the large group of men lazing about. Oddly enough though there was a large amount of treasure, chests, weapons, and cash laying around randomly in the area as well.

Once the men began to notice Takato they all opened up their enclosed circle to let him in. At the circle's center sat a man on something like that off a throne. A single hand was being used to comb through his dirty blonde hair though when he was Takato he immediately diverted all attention to the boy. The man upon the throne had a strange enlarge lower jaw as well as two large spiked maces on either side of his seat. It was more than likely that he was the one depicted on the flag. Takato got down to a knee and did not look to the man until he was directed to do so.

"So?' Was all that came from the mouth of the large man.

"He did not take you up on your request captain Clayton."

Clayton had seemed to have lost interest as he swung his large hand around to swat a fly. "Well, you know what to do boy, kill him and clean him out."

Takato seemed a bit hesitant as he prepared his next statement. "That's the thing, he has nothing of value on him nor his ship. Perhaps we could just let this one go?"

Clayton's eyes immediately shot open and he grabbed a hunk of wood from one of the wrecked ship and launched it at Takato. It hit him dead in the chest and Takato fell to a knee holding his ribs. He was clearly in pain but not a moment later did he stand back to his feet. _"An arrow does not complain, even when broken," _A thought flashed through his head and vanished just as quick, the memory of a young boy standing before a small army of people, out of arrows he tossed the bow to the floor and drew to knives ready to fight to the finish. "For my lord!" He shouted and charged the men.

Calming down, Clayton spoke again. "Though I suppose you're right, if there's nothing of value on his ship and he has no crew why should I send in one of my top men?" He waved his hand in a random direction and pointed at about ten random men among the pirate group. "Find him and remove him. Can't have people thinking I'm going soft can I?" He flashed a toothy grin. "Oh, and while you're out there go ahead and take some stuff from this crap town to make up for that pirate's lack of goods." Takato simply stood to the side and said nothing as the pirates fled the shipyard and went to town.

x-x-x-x

Hideo stood inside the bar where the men were once again trying to force alcohol down his throat as one last parting gift. "C'mon kid, drink! One last favor to an old man before you scram!" This unmistakable voice was Manly's as he gave one of his powerful bone pounding slaps to the back. This time Hideo literally fell to the ground, but managed to roll away from the men.

"Not again. The last time you said a little beer wouldn't hurt me I ended up passing out! I still have that hangover." The men in the bar all laughed in amusement at Hideo's antics. In a way, Hideo would miss this place; it was full of such fun loving people. He smiled a bit. "I think I'm gonna mi-

He was cut off as earsplitting screams fill the streets and the bar was immediately silenced. The men stopped cheering and the organist stopped playing, the only sounds that hadn't ceased were the calls from outside.

Hideo and Manly were the first to reach the doors as they looked out to see what was causing the commotion. All around pirates seemed to be looting the town and throwing whole families out of their homes. One of the buildings in town had even been set on fire. Hideo's mouth sat gaping open in shock and for a second he couldn't move. It wasn't until Manly began to head into town that Hideo followed his lead.

In the surge of people getting away from the trouble he had lost Manly and was alone somewhere in the streets of the town. "There he is!" A voice suddenly rang and lunged to Hideo from a rooftop, dagger in hand.

Did this have something to do with that guy's offer from earlier? How could they destroy such a peaceful town just because he refused some stupid deal? He flung his arm up and let his coat fly open enough for anyone to see the inside. It was literally lined with stick of dynamite of carrying colors.

"Crimson Bomber!" He grabbed a crimson red colored stick and quickly lit it with the lighter before tossing it at the pirate. The enemy seemed surprised for a bit as the explosive came towards him and exploded right in his face. He fell to the ground in a smoldering unconscious body.

"Argh, this has to do with that Takato guy doesn't it?!" He burst into an all out sprint looking for Manly, along the way he had managed to take out two more of the lesser pirates before finding his way back to the fisherman's home. "I'm sorry," was the first thing that came from Hideo's mouth as he approached him.

He patted Hideo on the back, softly for once, and sighed. "Don't be, it's those damn pirates' faults!" An angry surge of bubbles blew from his pipe. "My family did manage to get away so I'm glad."

Another one of the Clayton pirates rushed Hideo, but before he had a chance to blow this one away as well an oversized hand grabbed the man's face and slammed him into a wall. The pirate fell to the floor at Manly's feet. "I can't help but feel that if I would have just left earlier this wouldn't have happened."

"It's okay boy, the removal of these pirates were long overdue. They think that just because we don't have a marine group stationed here that we're just some defenseless, but captain Manly will show them." He walked into his home and back out several moment later donning a marine coat with the character 'Manly!' inscribed on the back. Hideo couldn't help but be surprised as a bad of sweat ran down his face. He was going to ask questions but Manly cut him off. "We've gotta do something about that fire."

Hideo reached in his coat again and pulled out three white stick of dynamite.

"Woah kid! I know the saying is to fight fire with fire but it's not literal!"

"It's okay, I got this." The white explosives however didn't seem to have fuses and instead Hideo simply tossed them to the burning half of the building. Upon contact with the flames they burst into white foam like material and began to fight the flames. "Extinguish Bombers." In moment they had brought down the flames to a controllable level before completely extinguishing them.

"Gahahaha! You're oddly prepared aren't ya!"

"Well, when you've lit yourself on fire a hundred times these things come in handy." Hideo couldn't help but laugh a bit as well showing off a few burns he had on his arms, hidden underneath the sleeves.

The remaining Clayton pirates poked their heads out from around the corner and looked to Manly and the much smaller Hideo. "It's okay, if we all attack at once they wont stand a chance." With that they all nodded in agreement and rushed the two of them. Big mistake. Needless to say, in moment all the men were on the floor, all but one. He cowered in fear against a wall, a dagger in hand that shook violently along with his body.

Hideo pulled out a bit of chocolate and stuck it in his mouth, it had been a while since he had gotten some sugar in his system. "So, you gonna show us where your captain and that arrow bastard are?"

x-x-x-x

"Hear that men? That's what I like to hear." Clayton held an ear with his hand cupped around it towards the town to hear the progress of his men. All was going well. Takato stood at his right side at the ready, his chest still bleeding a bit as the wound had obviously not been treated. The rest of the pirates sat idly, somewhat annoyed that they didn't get to into town.

In the middle of their circle landed two red sticks, fuses lit and about to blow. Everyone's eye's opened in shock but Takato's as he was the only one to react in time. He let loose two arrows that stabbed into the explosives and pushed them away from Clayton, though in the process moved them closer to the wrest of the crew. There were two loud bangs and bodies were sent scattering from the shock. In the end the only ones that stood were a few pirates, Takato, and the captain as the area was covered in a thick smokescreen.

"Good boy." Clayton said to the archer while picking up both of his maces. Takato on the other hand loaded three arrows into the long bow at once and kept his eyes moving side to side, scanning the entire area.

"There!" He fired the three arrows into the smoke, two shadows moves in separate directions, a larger one to the right and the smaller to the left. Suddenly, Manly emerged, a harpoon in hand a lunged at Clayton, Takato wouldn't let this opportunity go to waste and fired a couple arrows into the old marine who winced in pain. That was the only opportunity Clayton would need as he slammed one of the spiked maces into Manly's chest and sent him flying out from the smoke and into the far side of the shipyard. He nodded to his guard and jumped out after him, streams of blood dripping from one of his weapons.

Hideo walked out of the smoke, he was just finishing the last few bit of his chocolate bar and brushing his hands off. "So this is what you guys do when you don't get what you want? I' glad I decided not to sail under an idiot like Clayton." An arrow could suddenly be heard whistling through the air as Hideo barely dodged by rolling to his right, he sat in a crouched position with a couple Crimson Bombers in hand. "Damn, I didn't even manage to see this guy reach into his quiver." By this point Takato already had another arrow pulled back on the string and fixed on Hideo's position. This guy was good.

"Speak poorly of my master and the next one will be aimed to kill." His eyes narrowed and there was an unknown bitterness in his voice. For the first time the boy seemed to be showing some emotion, his face still wasn't much different than before his tone had changed drastically.

"I still don't see what would make you follow someone like this. Someone who would attack an innocent town and destroy buildings. Why would you fight to protect someone like him?"

"An arrow does not feel, it does not ask questions or wonder. An arrow flies true to its target, and finally, an arrow does not complain when broken." Was his only response, one that sounded like nothing but trash to Hideo.

Another air flew through the air and he jumped back into the smoke to avoid them. One still managed to slice into the side of his shoulder but there were no serious injuries.

The two Crimson Bombers managed to find their way out of the smoke and towards Takato. He simply retrieved two arrows from his quiver and fired at the explosives. Again, Hideo rolled to his side to avoid and saw both of his explosives lying on the ground. Were they duds?

No, he cut the fuses with the arrows! Along side the two sticks of dynamite there were burnt fuses. This guy was better than he though

On the other side of the shipyard the two captains clashed weapons. Clayton with both of his maces crossed in an X in a power struggle against Manly's harpoon. Neither side seemed to be gaining ground in this fight. Blood was running from Manly's chest and dropping to the ground. "I'm getting way too old for this."

Hideo leapt from the smoke and tossed another bomber. Takato was prepared to shot the fuse off of this one as well but he felt sudden pains in his chest from the wood thrown at him earlier. In that one moment of hesitation the dynamite reached his chest and exploded, knocking him into a pile of rubble.

He decided to lie there burnt and bleeding as Hideo stood over him. He turned his head away and refused to look at Hideo, he was too ashamed. "I couldn't protect Lord Clayton. He expected his foe to deal a finishing strike but instead he reached his pocket and handed him a bar of chocolate and sat down next to him.

"Have some, it'll lighten the mood a bit." Hideo reached into his pocket to fish out one of his own to find he had given away the last of his chocolate.

Takato refused the kind gesture and sat up a bit. "Why?"

Hideo sat there for a moment, scratching his head, he seemed confused as to why he had done it as well. "I guess it's just that I found that arrow stuff to be nonsense. An arrow doesn't wonder or complain when broken. Sure it might apply to an inanimate object, but not to living things such as people. Know what I mean? It just doesn't seem right for people to see themselves as just tools without thoughts of their own when they should be independent."

Takato said nothing, that line sounded familiar, but that was a memory long ago, something that lead back to the cause of all this. It would take him back to his sixth birthday on his homeland.

* * *

So yes, first and foremost I'd like to thank everyone who's been reading and reviewing the story and sending their characters. Knowing that there are people who actually enjoy reading my work is what drives me to continue writing and I just thought I'd let you all know how much it meant to me.

Takato was created and submitted in by Vincent so we can all thank him for this nice character. The next chapter should be the last of this arc and this chapter went a lot differently than I had originally planned but I think it still came out good in the end.

Sorry if the fights weren't what you expected, they were never really meant to be very epic, just some nice little action scenes.

Also, some of you should expect to see a message from me sometime before the next chapter on if I plan to use your character in the near future. If you don't receive one of these messages don't fret! It's just that I don't have any immediate plans on the character you sent in.

That's all for today people, long chapter and A/N I know, but I hope you all enjoyed. :D


	4. The Arrow That Soars

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners.

I'd also like to wish all my readers a happy Thanksgiving! ^_^

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 4: The Arrow That Soars**

* * *

Hideo sat there for a moment, scratching his head, he seemed confused as to why he had done it as well. "I guess it's just that I found that arrow stuff to be nonsense. An arrow doesn't wonder or complain when broken. Sure it might apply to an inanimate object, but not to living things such as people. Know what I mean? It just doesn't seem right for people to see themselves as just tools without thoughts of their own when they should be independent."

Takato said nothing, that line sounded familiar, but that was a memory long ago, something that lead back to the cause of all this. It would take him back to his sixth birthday on his homeland.

_Flashback, 11 years ago on the island of Yepan. _

A small boy stood across the fields tending to the plants and vegetables, keeping stray animals and insects off of them. The boy could be recognized a much younger Takato, no older than 6 years old and dressed in dirty rags that were substituted for clothing. His shirt was drenched in sweat as it was evident he had been working for hours in the hot sun. Despite all of this though Takato seemed different, he was actually smiling.

A box in hand, an elderly couple approached him, incredibly joyous smiles stretched across their faces. Once reaching the boy they surprised him with a shout of, "Happy birthday Takato!" He jumped in shock and fell into the dirt below them and they all simply laughed.

As he noticed the box in hand his eyes went wide with shock. "Is that?" They both nodded in agreement. "Mom, Dad, you really didn't have to." He was on the verge of tears as he said this. His family was nothing but poor farmers, to be able to spend money on something like a birthday gift was unheard of.

His mother, a middle aged woman in her fifties or so embraced him in a hug. "We've been saving up for this for a while, we can afford it." Her voice, soothing and sweet, settled the boy down and the family walked back to their home. Once inside the small one bedroom shack of a home there was a small slice of cake with a single candle in it. The cake was pretty small and meant only for one person.

Leading him to the table they continued to smile that smile, the one that hadn't left their faces since. "We've always wanted to do something like this for you, and now we finally can." His father added in.

"Blow out the candle and make a wish." The mother added. Takato simply sat staring at the cake for a while, savoring this moment. Rearing back his head, he inhaled deeply and began to exhale when the door was suddenly kicked open.

An official with several armed soldiers behind him entered the room. Immediately, his father's face paled and his mother grabbed her child into her arms. Takato on the other hand had no idea what was going on. The man leading the soldiers finally spoke, "By decree of Lord Oda, Takato Hiroyuki of the Hiroyuki household is to be taken to the castle immediately to begin training. Of course there's something in it for yourselves as well." He pulled out a brown puch and tossed it to the floor. Upon hitting the ground it spilled open and it was shown to be filled to the brim with gold coins. Takato's eyes went wide as the sight, so much gold in one place, gold that could feed the family for at least a year.

His parents however didn't seem amused as his father lifted the bag and tossed it back into the man's face. It slammed into his nose and gold coins scattered across the floor. He looked at the parents with a look of disgust. "It is an honor to serve as an Elite Guard to Lord Nobuo Oda." With a wave of his hand the soldier moved in and forcefully tore Takato from his mother's arms. His mother cried as she was helpless to save her only son. His father attempted to take him back only to be knocked down by the butt of the soldier's rifles.

"Let me go! Stop! Mother! Father! Help!" Takato's endless cries and screams came but the guards had no intentions of doing so. Tears streamed down the boys face and didn't stop. He was terrified.

His father cupped his hand and shouted, "Takato! I will come for you! Don't worry! We won't leave you alone, I promise!!" His parents stayed outside until they were out of sight, his mother crying in his father arms.

Yepan Island was a home of dozens feudal lords, each with their own lands and property. War between two or more feudal lords weren't uncommon. Whether it was for land, power, or honor. Yepan island was under one of such. Infact, the land they tile belong to the feudal lord in that area. The Noble House of Oda.

The leader of the House of Oda at that time loved playing war and politics, and in the course of his rule had managed to make many enemies. For that reason, the House of Oda started a tradition, of taking a promising child just as he had turned 6 to the main House, and training him to be the Oda House Leader's personal elite guard. Neither the child nor his family had a right to refuse.

Takato's old clothing was removed and burned and he was given a new wardrobe, one fit for the elite guard of his lord. Training started immediately and it was clear from the beginning that Takato was made of a different stock than average people, and it was made clearer by time. His eyesight was sharp, better than anybody else's in the Main House, his hands were the quickest among his peers and even elders. Chosen to be an archer, he showed skill and promise that comes only once in a multitude of years.

By the age of eight he still hadn't seen his family or his friends and for the past two years he still hadn't stopped asking. He looked up to his personal trainer and asked for probably the tenth time that day. "When can I leave and see my parents?"

The man snorted his nose and responded, "Never, now recite the sentence another 500 times and begin your training. This won't stop until you lose that damned individuality you still cling on to boy!"

"An arrow does not feel, it does not ask questions or wonder. An arrow flies true to its target, and finally, an arrow does not complain when broken." Takato said this repeatedly, taking him hours to finish, once that was over the real training began.

Over the course of another nine years these things had slowly turned him into what he is now. He recited the sentence up to the point where he even believed it himself. He trained harder than anyone, and his loyalty grew at a scary pace, to the point of a fanatical devotion to Nobuo Oda. He stopped being the fun loving broad minded kid, and became something of a puppet, a weapon. He had lost his personality, and became a tool.

By the age of 17 The House of Oda had turned Takato into the greatest archer they had ever seen and the ultimate tool. He coud close out any emotion and do whatever job was required of him. If given the order he would kill his parents in cold blood.

. It was then that disaster befallen the House of Oda. A neighboring feudal lord attacked the Oda with its full strength. While that in itself was a major threat, it wasn't enough to bring the House of Oda down. However, at the same time a mutiny occurred in the House of Oda. The trusted general of Nobuo Oda, Takato's teacher in many occasions, betrayed the Oda with other lesser nobles.

Takato stood at the middle of the fray, he was last line of defense until the forces reached his lord, Oda. He'd die before letting them kill. He reached into his quiver for another arrow only to grab at air. His vision began to blur as he was bloody and beaten all over. Random bodies of soldiers on both sides of the battle littered the floors but more and more from the opposing side seemed to enter the building. Takato threw the bow to the floor and drew two long knives, ready for battle. "For my lord!" He shouted and charged the men.

It was a short battle, a sword wound on Takato's leg caused him to stagger and he was immediately knocked unconscious.

Takato woke up in a dirty old hut, staring at a wooden ceiling. For some reason, he felt the place was similar, he turned his head to his side and his eyes fell on and old man and old women, sleeping soundly beside him. He was at his childhood home. Once they had awoken his father explained what happened to the house of Oda and how on a reckless impulse he and some other villages went and pulled him out.

Takato rushed to the window and looked out to see a burning mass of wood where the house of Oda once was. His father spoke, "Lord Oda is dead." Takato's facial expression didn't change at all but he was dying on the inside. His sole purpose in life had now left without a trace and Takato had nowhere else to go. With no direction in life he decided to remain with his parents a while.

He felt empty, and so he spent the next year with his parents, pondering on what he should do. After the year was over he finally announced, "I'm leaving to find a new Lord to serve." The emptiness at this point was unbearable, he needed purpose, and if it meant being used then so be it.

His parents could tell this would happen and just before leaving his mother had something to say.

"When you find your Lord to serve, I hope he will teach you to laugh, I hope he will teach you to cry. I hope he will teach you to be independent, to care about your own needs and wishes. I hope that he will teach you to have your own goals, your own dreams and aspirations." A tear fell from his mother's eye, and Takato felt pain in his chest. He was not as devoid as emotion as he thought he was.

The old woman continued, "When you find your master, I hope he will not regard you as a weapon, as a mere tool to do his bidding and strike where he needs you to strike. When you fiend your liege, I hope he will be one, to see you as a valuable friend and comrade." She coughed and choked her tears back before finally finishing with a motherly smile, "When you find him, I hope he will teach you, to be a human being once more." Takato had nothing to say to that, and he left soon after. To his ears, what his mother had said was nonsense. Surely it is better for him to be like this, more effective. He could never dispel the words from his mind however, and he would repeat it over and over again in his head, as he travels the sea to find his master, and true calling.

After a bit of travelling he met Clayton and served this man. He didn't know what possessed him to follow a person like this.

_Flashback end_

Takato seemed to wake from his daze with a jolt as Clayton screamed orders at him. The pirate was cut and beaten all over after a tough battle with Manly. "Boy! What the hell are you doing there daydreaming! Get up and fight for me." He approached Takato, but Hideorose to his feet as a barrier. Clayton simply swatted him off to the side with one of his massive hands and lifted Takato into the air by his robes.

As Manly continued his mad rant the archer just tuned him out for a moment. On the ground was the piece of chocolate Hideo had offered to him. A reminder of what his mother had told him.

"Boy, are you even listening?!" Takato glanced back over to Clayton. Without warning he planted a foot into the man's chance, freeing himself from his grip and landed skillfully on the ground. Clayton was prepared to retaliate but the moment he looked back to Takato the boy already had an arrow aimed for his head.

"I no longer serve a weak minded fool such as yourself." Takato spoke coldly as he let his fingers slip on the string of the bow, though before the arrow could be released Manly's body collided with Clayton and both men fell to the ground, the arrow barely missing its intended target.

Clayton, alone and defeated gave up the battle. Hideo stood to his feet and began to brush himself off; as the group looked around they saw that Takato was missing.

x-x-x-x

By the next morning a marine ship had passed by the island and picked up the pirate crew. Luckily, no one had ratted Hideo out. Takato still hadn't been found, and the island was quiet for now. Hideo was preparing to leave (again) this time departing from Manly's home.

"You never explained why you didn't do anything when you found out I was a pirate." Hideo asked just as he walked out of the front door, a bag hung over his shoulder that had been stuffed with a bit of food he managed to grab while on the island.

"Aint it obvious? It's cuz I like ya kid! Gahahahaha." Manly laughed louder than ever and gave Hideo a slap on the back. Though getting more serious Manly asked, "Any word on the Takato kid?"

Hideo simply shook his head, he didn't know what was up with that guy but he seemed troubled.

"Maybe you should ask him to join your pirate group. Two head are better than one after all." Manly began to suggest, a slow stream of bubbles rose from the pipe.

"I'm not sure if I can do that." Hideo spoke honestly. Takato was still much of a mystery, and though he had left Clayton he was still a bit too dangerous. Someone emotionless who could kill without a thought.

"Hear an old man out for once. That boy has been broken in by that fool Clayton and I'm sure it goes much further back than that, but at this point in his life he needs guidance. A broken arrow can never fly, but one guided by a man clear of sight will soar."

Hideo could tell what Clayton was getting at, but the problem would be finding the boy.

x-x-x-x

Searchign the island and forests for hours Hideo had not managed to find him yet. Perhaps he had left the island? At least that's what he thought until he reached his ship to find the archer stting at attention in the small ship. Hideo rose an eyebrow and Takato immeadiately stepped on the deck and got on a knee.

"Lord Katsua, will you please take me on your ship and allow me to sail under your flag, as your humble servant?"

"Without hesitation Hideo answered, "No."

Takato seemed to freeze for a moment but rose to his feet, prepared to leave. "Wait." Hideo stopped him. "I won't allow you to join me as a servant or guard any crap like that. I will only allow you to join me as a comrade who fights for what they believe in."

"I'll believe in whatever you do!" Takato spoke strongly, a bit of determination in his voice.

Hideo's fist clenched tightly. "No! That's not the point! Before I'll ever let you on my ship you have to have your own source of determination! If you're only going to be some tool with no mind of your own then there's no way I can let you on this ship. Now tell me, what is your goal?"

Takato tensed, his mind went blank. He had no idea what to say. "I don't know. Not yet at least." He muttered hesitantly.

"Welcome aboard." Hideo began to smile warmly as he got onto the ship and motioned for Takato to join him.

* * *

Sorry if this chapter seems rushed, it kind of was. I wanted to type it up and get it to you guys before I had to leave for Thanksgiving. Hope you guys enjoyed, keep those characters coming, and have a happy holiday!

**Unnamed Pirates**

**-Hideo Katsua**: Captain

**-Takato Hiroyuki**: Marksman


	5. Drifting Out At Sea

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners.

Sorry for not updating in a while. There was Thanksgiving, then back to school with plenty of homework, and it doesn't help that I have midterms in 2 weeks. After those 2 weeks however things should be fine.

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 5: Drifting Out At Sea**

* * *

The prate crew plus one had been sailing the West Blue for a couple days now and things were going much better for Hideo than they had been before. During his time travelling out at sea, Takato had learned some very basic navigation and had a small map of the West Blue. According to his directions they were heading to an Island known as Rushville. It was one of the West Blue's many wild western themed islands and a decent rest stop.

Unfortunately, on such a small ship as this there was nothing much to do in between island to island travel. Takato managed to occupy his time by making sure they were staying on track to their next location and by working on something else at night while Hideo slept. He wondered what it could be, but the archer seemed very secretive over the work so Hideo decided it best not to intrude on his privacy.

Hideo on the other hand just sat around and watched the scenery. The same old scenery over and over; the ocean, some fish, a couple clouds, more ocean. That wasn't what was driving him mad though. Those damned Clayton Pirates had destroyed the candy shop on Bausyer island! The captain wanted to pull his hair out for that one. He hadn't had any sweets in two days!

The two of them hadn't talked much since they left though. Deciding it would be a good chance to get his mind off of the lack of sugar in his system and to get to know his new ally, he opened up a conversation.

"So, Takato, how about I tell you some things about myself, then you tell me something about you, and continue this back and forth process?"

Takato looked away from the map for a moment and answered in a strong, "Yes sir."

Not quite the type of response Hideo wanted from him. Takato still had the idea of Hideo being his master stuck to his mind. "Okay, my name is Hideo Katsua, and I'm from Hanabi Island. It's a place known for its fireworks."

Takato nodded and thought for a moment before giving his own response. "My name is Takato Hiroyuki, I'm from Yepan Island. It's a place known for its harsh laws and feudal system."

Hideo smiled a bit, this would be easy. "I like sweets, know a lot about fireworks and explosives and dislike alcohol and vegetables. My goal is to take over the world!"

Takato responded with a blank face, "I like...I dislike….My goal is to…." Takato stopped for a moment and looked away from Hideo before his eyes quickly turned back to him. "I know a lot about marksmanship."

Did he not even have a simple opinion as to what he liked or disliked? Hideo sighed and leaned back against the edge of the small boat. "Um, how about you just ask me a question?"

"What made you decide to be a pirate and why do you want to rule the world?" Takato asked flatly while reaching in the back of the ship to grab something.

Hideo froze in position as his mind blanked. It wasn't the fact that he didn't remember or didn't want to tell Takato. If he was going to ask people to sail under him and follow him as a captain they had the right to know his intentions didn't they? It was more that he didn't want to remember something like that.

Takato could easily pick up on Hideo's discomfort and changed the subject in moments. "There's small ship coming this way from the east of us. It's moving pretty fast and has smoke rising from it. Most likely steam powered. We should intersect with them in less than ten minutes."

Hideo snapped out of his momentary pause and looked out to the ship as well. He didn't see a jolly roger or the marine insignia on their sails. Perhaps just travelers? Regardless, it was probably best not to interact with them, though without any form of acceleration it was going to happen. "Get ready for a fight just in case."

Takato nodded and prepared his longbow and arrows while Hideo reached into his coat for his dynamite.

As Takato predicted, the ship managed to reach them and seemed to turn a blind eye to their tiny boat as they continued on. The pirates would have done the same if they had not seen what was going on onboard. A man was carrying a young woman over his shoulder and going down to one of the lower levels of the ship. The young girl was bound with ropes and unconscious. One of the men said, "Finally caught her." He said this while speaking into some kind of weird snail.

Their ship didn't seem to have many people aboard and was too small to hold any absurd amount. Maybe they were bounty hunters? As the steam boat powered on and went past them, Hideo grabbed two sticks of dynamite and looked to his only ally. "Better hold on Takato. We're gonna go help her."

"Yes lord Katsua." The marksman responded as Hideo lit the fuses on the explosives. He waited for the fuses to burn down a bit before tossing them behind the ship and grabbing onto the small railing on the boat. Takato seemed to gather his things as well, and in a few moment there was a loud bang as water flew everywhere and their tiny dinghy was launched a few feet into the air and back along side the steam ship.

The jaw of just about every man on the other ship dropped as they saw the pirates launch themselves into the air and leaped on their ship. Hideo's boat on the other hand didn't manage to survive the explosions and had already sunken beneath the water. "Guess we're gonna need to take this ship while we're up here too."

"Um, Lord Katsua, our supplies were on that boat." Takato mentioned flatly.

"No, my emergency chocolate!" Hideo called out as the thought of jumping in the water for it quickly flashed through his head. When the pirates turned back to the men on the ship they all had swords and guns pointed their way. There were only about four of them on deck though.

Takato flashed Hideo a look. "I'll handle it." In the blink of an eye an arrow was already loaded into the quiver and fixated at the center of the men. This arrow was different however; at the end of it was a small wooden sphere instead of an arrowhead. "Gunpowder Bolt." He muttered calmly and let the arrow fly. It hit at the center of the men and suddenly exploded causing them to scatter in different directions.

"You used my gunpowder didn't you?"

Takato nodded. "Sorry for using it witho-"

"It's no problem." The impact of the explosion did however end up leaving a decently sized hole in the wooden floor of the ship and the commotion caused another small bundle of men to rise from the stairs and come their way. These men were dispatched in the same way as the other except with one of Hideo's Crimson Bombers. He dusted his hands and turned to face the stair way the young girl had been taken down into. As Hideo prepared to open the door down there was a scream from downstairs followed by a man flying through the door and joining the rest of the unconscious men.

Hideo simply froze in place for a moment before peering down into the stairway. In moments the girl from earlier leaped forwards and gave a devastating punch to Hideo's face that sent him skidding across the wooden deck of the ship and down, into the hole Takato had made earlier.

The girl now turned and looked to Takato with a sadistic look on her face. The girl had fair, light skin and red hair that managed to reach down to her waist. She was about the same height as the marksman and wore a pink sleeveless top with jean shorts and black fingerless gloves. Strapped to her back was a nodachi. Takato could tell because of it's appearance and great length (almost as tall as her) He had seen this weapon many times before on the battlefield back on Yepan and knew this girl must've possessed great strength in order to wield that weapon.

He tensed and loaded another arrow. The sword wielder narrowed her eyes on him and turned her body so that they were now facing each other. Takato easily managed to calculate the distance between them and knew he was out of the range of her sword.

"I won't let you take me to that monster!" She screamed out, Takato was slightly caught off guard. Using that chance she quickly unsheathed the long blade and swung at Takato's midsection. Analytical as always Takato quickly stepped out of range of the attack and shot an arrow in her direction. Not aiming to kill, at least not yet. It managed to cut across her side but it wasn't any kind of major damage.

"How did I miss?" Takato couldn't help but question himself at this point. He had made sure he was in the perfect position for a major blow to her as he intended to end this fight quickly and make sure Hideo was fine. It was then he heard the steady dripping of blood that didn't belong to the woman.

Looking down to his torso he could see a clear gash cutting across his chest and blood running down and hitting the wooden floors. "How did you manage to hit me?" I made sure I was out of range of the swing. This girl was clearly mistaken on his intentions on the ship though. "Miss, I think you have me-"

Before he could finish she was at him again, this time from above. She held the sword out horizontally and came down at the marksman. Takato quickly rolled to the side, this time avoiding any injuries and loaded another arrow.

x-x-x-x

Hideo found himself lying in some kind of storage room after falling through the hole. He looked up above him into his entrance and knew it was a bit too high for him to jump through. There was plenty of crashing and yelling going on up there though, something that made him a bit worried.

Looking around the room he began to move crates and stack them as a method of getting back up there.

The door on the other side of the room suddenly flew open as two men walked through. "She's at it again. Maybe we should just end al this trouble and take the girl back to her dead." A much larger and more muscled man said.

"I'd rather not take any chances on this one. Who knows what that guy will do to us if something goes wrong." Hideo could only see the silhouette of the two men due to the lack of light but as they entered, both of them grabbed something and prepared to exit until the much slimmer of the two said something inaudible and turned back into the room. The other nodded and left. "Why don't you go ahead and poke your head out. I know you're in here. You made it kind of obvious with the box stack."

"Damnit." Hideo muttered under his breath and stood up from behind the crates.

"What're you doing on our ship kid?" The man asked him casually as if they had known each other for a while. This uneased Hideo a bit but he answered nonetheless.

"Maybe I should ask why you're kidnapping girls on this boat. Slave traders? Bounty hunters?"

The man chuckled a bit. "You're not in position to be asking questions around here." The man pushed up his glasses in an odd way with his palms and reached into one of the nearby crates for something. What he pulled out appeared to be a pair f gloves with long blade like claws coming from the tips. "Haven't used these in a while."

x-x-x-x

Back on deck Takato was still trying to explain to her that he was on the ship for other reasons but the girl didn't seem to settle down. It was then that the larger of the two men from the storage room appeared. He dropped a heavy wooden crate to his side that made the boat shake a bit.

"Listen here, Haze, I'm not here to be nice to you. I'm here to get you from one place to another." He yelled with strengthening anger in each word. The man had large piece of an iron in place of his jaw and around one of his arms were bandages with a small metal protrusion where his hand should have been. This man seemed to be growing a bit old as his hair was beginning to gray. He then reached into the crate he had dropped and pulled out what looked like a miniature cannon. The weapon easily attached to the metal on the bandaged arm.

Taking aim, he fired a net from the gun and the girl, now known to be Haze, was down on the ground. She struggled a bit gave in after a few moments. "These nets are lined with sea stone girl. Don't expect to use your fruit to get you out of those."

So she had a devil's fruit? Takato questioned to himself. That did clear up some things but now he was face to face with a new threat. The man looked toward Takato with cold eyes and unattached the cannon for something else in the crate.

"One of my old time favorites." He said as he pulled out an enormous axe and attached it to the arm.

* * *

Hope you guys enjoyed the new chapter, especially the ending. Expect the next chapter sometime next week and keep those characters coming!

Haze was created by fan, LaZy-RaIn-DaNcEr


	6. Black Cats and Axe Hands

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners.

Yeah, studying and finals have been rough, but I've managed to bring out a late update. This one is extra long though, so it kind of makes up for it? Thanks for all the support people ^_^

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 6: Black Cats and Axe Hands**

The silver axe gleamed in the light of the sun as the man looked down at it with admiration. His eyes stayed on the weapon for a few moments before meeting back with Takato's. "Do you know who I am boy?" He questioned with blatant arrogance in his voice. Takato didn't answer and instead kept a single arrow fixated in the man's direction.

The axe wielder raised a brow and chuckled. "Not much of a talker, are you?" He reached into his pocket and threw a bit of parchment at Takato's feet. Not wanting to take his hands away from his weapon, Takato simply unrolled the paper with his feet while keeping his steady eyes on him.

It was a wanted poster with a picture of the man standing before him now. In the picture he was using his large ax arm to cleave his way through a throng of marine troops. The name read "Axe Hand Morgan" and his bounty was 25 million beli. Takato was both surprised and a bit impressed but didn't let it show on his face.

"If you wish to put fear into me a feeble bounty as this won't work." He kicked the poster aside. Morgan growled at this act of defiance and readied his axe for battle.

"Even if you're not afraid of me boy you should fear for your friend down there. His opponent is a real monster. I would know. I've fought him in the past." Takato's uncaring façade faltered for the slightest of moments at the thought of his lord being injured down there while he was stuck fighting this man. Seizing this chance, Morgan laughed and charged at the marksman with surprising speed for his size. He made a horizontal swing with the oversized weapon that Takato just barely managed to avoid by leaping back.

"For the sake of my lord I must end this quickly." He unloaded two regular arrows at Morgan's chest that were simply blocked by the man raising the broad side of his axe as a shield. Once this defense was dropped however the man was surprised to see his bow wielding opponent standing to the right of him with an odd arrow loaded on the string of the bow.

Instead of a normal arrow head, at the end of this one seemed to be a dense, black, block of metal. "Lead Bolt!" He called as the new weapon shot forward like a rocket and collided with Morgan's rib cage. The muscular figure stumbled back a bit clutching his side and fuming with anger. Upon impact there had definitely been the sound of a slight crack. Takato could tell the shot had probably fractured a couple of this man's ribs.

Morgan roared and lunged right at Takato with his fist instead of the axe hand, this attack much faster than the larger axe and a surprise to Takato, hit him dead on and the boy skidded across the deck and into the railings of the ship. "Hmph." Morgan cracked his knuckles and began to speak. "Don't let down your guard because you managed one lucky shot kid."

On the other side of the deck Haze watched the two men go at it and was confused at the fact that they were fighting. Perhaps the boy was actually here to help her? As much as she wanted to say something to him she just couldn't find the strength to manage it, the nets were still draining her energy and she felt she could pass out at any moment.

x-x-x-x

In the dim light of the supply room Hideo could see the gleam on all ten of the blades the man was now wielding. His eyes shot open in shock at the sight of them. They were a pair of gloves with claws extending from each finger, but each blade was essentially the length of a katana.

"Don't blink boy, you might miss me." He gave a wide, cat-like grin that was somehow visible even in the darkness. He then walked behind a pile of crates and disappeared from view.

Hideo's body instantly tensed up as things suddenly became quiet except for the crashing and scuffling of feet above them. Hideo of course worried for Takato but he was sure he could handle himself.

"How will you fair in a fight against that which you can't see boy?" It was the man's voice but it instead seemed to be coming from all directions and the fear slowly crept its way into Hideo's body. A nervous sweat ran from his forehead and hit the floor. He didn't know why but for some reason this man's presence was just so ominous, so powerful, and so…evil.

"You should feel proud to fall by the claws of, Black Cat Kuro. Creeping Cat." Hideo felt a gust of wind followed by shuffling of the boxes and suddenly steel along his neck. The man was now behind him with claws in a lethal position. Hideo immediately ducked down and rolled away before he could manage a fatal blow.

He breathed heavily as he returned to his feet and saw that the man, known as Kuro had vanished once again. "Damnit, can't stand still for too long or else he'll catch me in his claws again." Hideo turned on his heel and made an all out run to the door to exit the supply room, but there was suddenly another shuffling and he could feel a harsh sting on his arm.

There were five cut going across his forearm. They weren't deep or severe but still pretty painful. There was a low laughter and silence again. "You'll never catch me boy, surrender and face death." The voice rang in Hideo's ears and echoed around the room. How would he possibly hit an opponent to fast to even be seen?

It seemed he didn't have much time to answer this as that familiar gust of wind went by and there were several slashes across the side of his face. "Gah!" He called and staggered back holding his face. Not losing a beat however, Kuro managed to land several more blows. Another set of less severe cuts on the pirate's legs and a deep gash across his chest.

Hideo nearly fell to his knees from the pain and relentless attacks, but he knew what the results of that would be. If he went to his knees for even a moment he would be in the perfect position to be slaughtered.

Instead he continued to stand on wobbling legs, clutching his sides. He remained there for a moment, hands in his coat, before running back across the supply room with a lit crimson bomber in hand. At the slightest sound he tossed it at a nearby crate. There was an explosion but no sign of Kuro.

His weak leg seemed to give in a bit and he crashed into several crate piles and stumbled into a corner. He breathed in heavily and on his face was a look of great despair as more and more sweat ran from his skin and down his clothing and on the dusty wooden floors.

"This was definitely no fun. You died too quickly!" He could hear Kuro call from directly in front of him in that sickening voice of his. "You even went and cornered yourself for me." The man disappeared again and oddly enough Hideo smiled.

"Or so it would appear." The bomber remarked as he lit a lighter to get a better view. Standing in front of him was Kuro, though strangely covered in string and from head to toe in dynamite.

"What is this?!" The Black Cat screamed out in frustration as he attempted to remove some of the dynamite only to have his hand be stuck to his clothing.

Hideo scratched his head a bit and thought for a moment. "Actually, I've yet to give that attack a new name. Wait, gimme a sec. Net Bomber? Spider Bombers? Trap Bombers?" He continued on for a moment trying to come up with potential names as Kuro's anger steadily rose and several veins began to bulge on his forehead.

"Damnit Boy!" The man yelled and attempted to swing at Hideo only to stagger forward a bit and stick to a nearby wall.

"Well, names aside, you fell for it." Hideo stuck out his tongue and pulled open an eyelid with his free hand in a childish manner. "To be honest I was afraid of you at first, but after you landed all those consecutive blows on me and could tell you had the full intention of killing me. Then I thought about those who still needed me and knew giving up was not an answer." He tensed up a bit as he placed his hand over his heart. There was silence.

"So I pretended to be completely in despair and did all the crashing and whatnot to setup my trap. I remember over here by the corner there were two stacks of crates that opened a way into the corner. So I simply got a handful of Crimson Bombers, some wire I carry on me and a couple of these so they'd stick to you." He pulled out an off white-ish colored stick of dynamite. "Glue Bomber."

"After that it was as simple as leading you into a straight forward path for you to walk into the trap and the corner was the perfect place for this. Pretty clever right?" Kuro answered with a low growl and Hideo pouted a little. "You could give me some credit you know."

"How could I fall for something so simple?" Kuro muttered to himself and struggled to break free again. Hideo grinned at him one last time before lighting a crimson bomber and tossing at him.

Thinking about it he quickly ran to the door on the opposite side the room. "Yeah, this is the part where I get the hell out of here." The bomber landed and stuck to Kuro chest and Hideo quickly rushed out of the room. Moments later there were a series of explosions.

x-x-x-x

Takato slowly rose back to his feet and prepared his shot again. He coughed up a bit of blood that fell on to his robes and stained them with a crimson red. "I look a mess, Lord Katsua would be disgraced to see me in such a form." He said to no one but himself for the most part. He could feel immense pain in his chest and a shortness of breath.

"I think I'll start off with those nimble fingers of yours; chopping each one of them off one by one before slicing off those speedy legs as well." Morgan responded to the marksman standing back up and grinned slightly. He raised the axe arm and charged forward.

Takato looked at Morgan's form as he lunged forward. It was a vertical axe swing this time. He judged its length and where it would hit before side stepping the attack and preparing another arrow. Surprisingly though, there was no axe swing. There was instead a fist with the strength of a cinderblock slamming into the top of his head and he fell to the ground. The axe attack had just been a fake.

Morgan stood in spot smiling for a moment before laughing hysterically. "This has been interesting while it lasted boy, but I think it's time we got rid of you and moved on to real business." Approaching Takato's motionless body on the ground, he raised his axe into the air and prepared for a finishing blow be could suddenly feel something piercing into his leg.

Morgan looked down to see the red haired girl, Haze, at his feet and digging her teeth into his leg. By the single arm that managed to wrench its way free from the net he could tell she probably dragged her body completely across the deck just to help the archer. Morgan instinctively laughed at this feeble attempt though and kicked her aside.

Looking back to Takato he could see the boy had loaded an arrow and fired, the steel blade of the arrowhead whizzed by and sliced Morgan's side but did not much more than that.

"Some nice effort from the both of you but this is over." He raised the axe once again but suddenly felt a blade stabbing into his back. He slowly turned around to see the swordsman now crawling her way out of the net that had been cut open. The arrow!

"Fall!" Haze screamed, her feet were wobbly and her vision was a bit blurry but she knew she had enough strength left to pull off something like this. She pulled the nodachi from Morgan's back and held it straight out in front of her. "Hana-Kai! (Flower Cut!)" She suddenly moved forward and delivered a powerful directly into the axe man's chest.

He stood there for a moment, blood seeping from the gash on his chest before falling to the ground. Once Morgan had hit the ground haze fell to a knee.

Though the two of them did not see it, a figure suddenly appeared on the deck and vanished into the water. There were a few loud bangs and a sudden splashing of water from the front of the ship. Could it be more trouble?

Just then Hideo stepped on the deck covered in his battle wounds. He extended both hands for his marksman and Haze to stand up. Already knowing Takato would be concerned, Hideo spoke first. "Don't worry about these cuts, just got in a little scramble with a kitty."

"Kitty?" A familiar voice came from the end of the ship. A dripping wet Kuro emerged from the water and looked at Hideo intently. His glasses had seemed to vanish, most of his claws were now either gone and the remaining for or five of them were chipped, broken, or damaged. There also seemed to be some burns and various other wounds on his body, but for the most part he seemed fine.

Hideo froze in place; he couldn't believe what was before his eyes. He stood in awe and uttered a simple, "How?"

Kuro simply pointed a finger at the hole on the deck just above the supply room and then at the ocean. "Lucky for me that glue of yours was water soluble, though a couple of your little firecrackers still managed to get me I put a majority of them out. Now die a painful death. Shakushi!" He suddenly vanished again and Hideo could feel a familiar gust of wind only this time much stronger.

On the deck claw marks began to suddenly appear around the deck and advanced towards the trio. Takato was the first to receive an attack and fell to a knee from the fierce claw markings going across his chest.

"Lord Katsua! Get away from here!" Hideo ignored Takato and firmly stood his ground while reaching for a Crimson Bomber only to find he was out of them. Before he had a chance to come up with any other bright ideas, he too fell to the ground from deep gashes across his back.

Kuro stopped and appeared in front of Haze. He heaved a tired sigh and motioned for her to come with him with raggedy clawed finger.

"I've had enough foolishness for one day. Either you come along as well or face punishment like you've never before." His voice was much coarser than before and had full intention of going through with what he said.

"No, I won't go back." This was all that she wanted to be said and raised two glowing red palms. The energy moved and flowed around her gloved hands as if it had a life of its own. The longer it stood the more it seemed to accumulate and grow.

Kuro frowned and raised his claws. "Don't defy me gir-

"Konki Bakuha! (Energy Blast!)" Haze roared fiercely at the Black Cat and released the red energy at Kuro all at once. He had not seen this coming and took the energy full on. All the air escaped from his lungs as his eyes seemed to go completely white and he fell off the ship and in the ocean.

Hideo and Takato sat in awe at the sight of her abilities. For Hideo, this had been his first time witnessing a devil fruit power first hand, and he was blown away.

x-x-x-x

Haze set her sword down, crackled her knuckles and reached down to pick up Morgan's huge body. Surprisingly, she lifted him over her head completely and chunked him over the rail and into the ocean as well.

Hideo raised an eyebrow. "Is that part of your devil fruit power too?" Hideo asked while propped up against the wall to the cabins and covered head to toe in bandages. Takato was next to him and seemed to be in the same condition. After the battle and everything had seemed to settle down a bit, Haze had suddenly revealed her Hyper and cheerful personality and raided the medical cabinets on the ship. (During this time she also went through the trouble of tossing Morgan's and Kuro's lackeys into the sea as well) After finding an entire roll of bandages she literally used the entire thing to wrap up the two of them. They were so stiff they could hardly manage to walk.

"No, I may not look it, but I'm actually pretty strong." She said cheerfully as she dusted off her hands and put her prized sword back on her back. "I could use my fruit to do that if I wanted to though."

"Um, Lord Katsua, don't you think you should at least learn her name before asking things like that?" Takato motioned from his side before falling to the ground and wiggling a bit. "I can't get up."

"Oh sorry, I'm, Hideo Katsua."

"My name is Haze, and seeing as how you're so interested in my powers I'll tell you the name of the fruit. It's called the Energy Energy Fruit and gives me all kinds of neat abilities!"

Hideo smiled. "That settles it then. You have to join my pirate crew!"

Haze's face immediately lit up more than it was before as she cheered excitedly. "You mean I can finally travel with a group? You'd never know how boring it is talking to the sea. Though I should warn you." The mood suddenly went downcast as Haze paused for a moment. "For reasons unknown to me, there are men chasing after me and they won't hesitate to hurt you guys to get me."

"What are they chasing you for?" This question was coming from the voice of reason of the pirate duo, Takato.

"I don't know, but it has something to do with the man who took my memories from me. The man I hope to find one day."

It was Hideo's turn to ask a question. "What will you do when you find him?"

"I…I don't know." Haze responded and her head suddenly hung low.

When she looked up she could see shining blue eyes staring back into hers. It was Hideo. "It's okay, we can cross that road when we get there. I'm even willing to promise on my very own life and soul that I'll help my nakama achieve their goals!"

"Nakama?" Both Haze and Takato questioned at the same time.

"Don't you two know? Being in my crew makes us all family, and there's nothing that can possibly change that." Haze tackled Hideo with a sudden cheerful hug that sent him to the floor and bombarded him with "thank you's."

"Lord Katsua, I'll get to work immediately on steering us towards Rushville. I think there's something very valuable we can get from there." Takato wiggled a bit more attempting to stand to his feet and caused everyone to laugh.

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**Unnamed Pirates**

**-Hideo Katsua**: Captain

**-Takato Hiroyuki**: Marksman

-**Haze: **Swordsman

Whoo, that one was a doozy to write but I decided to make up for the lack of chapters with a long new one. Hope you liked it. I'd like to thank everyone for the support they've given me for the story and to tell everyone to be ready for the Rushville Arc1 I plan to have many surprises in this one.

Seeya next time, and keep those characters coming. I haven't gotten any marines from anyone!


	7. Welcome to Rushville!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners.

Happy Holidays everyone and thanks for the continued support!

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 7: Welcome to Rushville!

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**

It was a relatively peaceful day for Hideo and his pirate crew that had just been recently boosted up to a member count of three not even two days ago. Although the ship they had stolen from Kuro and Morgan was of decent size (much larger than their previous one anyway) and had some supplies on it for them to use, it wouldn't last more than a few more days out at sea. For one thing there seemed to be no effective water sealant so everyone had to take shifts during the day and the previous night handling the water issue. Another was the damage it had taken both before and after they arrived. Haze did admit to some of the damage during a short scuffle before Hideo and Takato arrived.

Hideo stepped out on deck where Takato was currently making sure they were staying on route to Rushville. He had a map in one hand and a pair of binoculars in the other. "Any sight of land yet?" Hideo asked lazily as he took a seat on the wooden floor.

"None yet, Lord Katsua, I'll inform you if I do. By the map though, I can tell that we should be able to see it within the next hour." He said all of this while not taking his eyes off the parchment in his hand. Hideo grinned and leaned back to the point that he was just lying on top of the deck.

"Why do you say we need to get to Rushville so badly anyway? I say we're practically ready to enter the Grandline at this point anyway."

Takato cleared his throat and paused for a moment. "Excuse me Lord Katsua, and don't take this in the wrong way, but only an idiot would go into the Grandline like this. We lack a working vessel, a navigator to actually steer us, and a skilled doctor to tend to wounds or sickness. I may have basic navigation skills, but reading a map is simple. The Grandline on the other hand is unpredictable." Takato suddenly felt a bit of pain in his gut. Perhaps he should apologize for speaking to his lord in such a disrespectful way?

To both his own and Hideo's surprise though, the captain just laughed at this. "I guess you're right Takato. You have a pretty good head on your shoulders. You know that? To be honest, I don't know what I'd do without you at my side. Sometimes I think, I might be way too impulsive to be a captain and lead an entire crew." The laughter had subsided and by this point Takato had no idea if Hideo was joking or serious.

Takato opened his mouth to say something but they both suddenly heard screaming coming from downstairs along with heavy footsteps. Kicking the door open, Haze burst on the deck with a stack of papers in hand before tripping on the very last step and falling straight to the ground. The girl seemed unfazed by this however as she quickly rebounded to her feet and began to talk. "Yeah, I know I'm supposed to be on water duty, but look what I found on the ship!" She dropped the stack of papers so that they all fell on his face.

With a slight groan he turned over and rose to his feet. The stack of papers was bounty posters. "What, are we in them or something?" Hideo asked, questioning the reason for them.

"No, but check out some of the names in there. They even say one of those crews still roams the West Blue and just formed their crew not but a few months ago." Haze answered, hyperactive as ever. Hideo did mind her overactive personality though, it really did lighten the mood of the ship.

Now getting a bit excited as well Hideo began to flip through the posters. The first few on there were some low level pirates with bounties from the 500,000 range to 2 million. It was after that they hit the big name crews. The one that really caught his eye was the crew that Haze had mentioned still roamed the West Blue. He read the name slowly to himself. "Starfall Pirates…"

The first one on the stack was their captain. His name, Van "Ace Duece" Blanc. Though he was about the same age as him, his appearance was quite strange to Hideo. His hair was messy and randomly spiked, but the odd part of it wad that one half ended up being pure whit while the other was jet black. This pattern seemed to follow the rest of his body, including his eyes and even clothing. The only thing that seemed like it didn't follow this theme was his skin. The poster displayed him standing there with a psychotic look on his face while holding his arm out, preparing to do something. His bounty was a whopping 60 million.

The next poster in the stack was for a purple haired man with a cane in his hand. His eyes were unusually calm and his lips spread into a wide and almost sincere smile. He seemed like he had noticed the camera beforehand and was ready for the picture as both of his eyes looked straight at it, even his strange left eye that lack a pupil and stared with piercing cobalt blue eyes. The left eye also had a scar running down from it, but not up. His name read, Kurtz "The Black Madness" Rosencrantz and his bounty just barely fell behind his captain's with a bounty of 52 million.

Hideo flipped to the next poster only to find it was someone from a different crew entirely. He stopped in his tracks, his jaw literally dropping. "Hey, what happened to those Starfall guys? The poster said they have at least four to eight people in the crew!" Hideo had been slightly annoyed by the fact that the rest of the crew's posters weren't in there. He was just starting to get caught up in that crew too, like a good book or something.

Haze simply shrugged her shoulders. "Guess they didn't have them all in there or something? Or maybe they're not all wanted?"

Hideo sighed and looked at a couple more. He had just found one that had a big 'X' crossed through it when Takato stopped him. "Wait, Lord Katsua, let me see that one." Hideo raised an eyebrow, but complied and handed it to him. Takato looked at the poster and his face immediately paled. "This is bad. Very bad."

Haze and Hideo took a quick look at each other then Takato before taking the poster back. The name read Ursa "Bear Cub" Miroku. The picture displayed a young man with shoulder length brown hair wearing a purple long sleeved top and a pair of skiing goggles on his forehead. In the picture he was seen standing atop a ship hammering nails into place. His bounty was 9 million but that had now been crossed out. According to the poster he had now been arrested and was under marine custody.

"What's the problem Takato? You know him or something" Haze questioned after she finished reading the poster.

Takato looked away from the map again and to his fellow crew mates. "He's the whole reason we're going to Rushville to begin with. He was a young and skilled shipwright who helped repair Clayton's ship when we passed through there. Before we left though he said that he had been working on his own ship for a while and soon planned to depart on his own."

"So you figured he could get us a nice ship?" Takato nodded in response.

Hideo leaned up against the mass and thought for a moment. "Well, we can't float around in this thing forever and we don't have the cash to buy a ship. Looks like we'll just have to bust the poor guy out."

Haze began to cheer and pumped her fist in the air while Takato didn't seem as excited for this plan. "I'm sorry Lord Katsua, but Rushville is the home of a marine office and jail, but not an actual prison. For all we know they could've shipped him off somewhere else by now."

"Aww, Takato, why you always gotta be such a downer?" Hideo said in a childish tone while pouting. "We won't know unless we try anyway, so might as well." Haze began to cheer again and Takato didn't seem to object this time either.

"The island is in sight, Lord Katsua." Takato said while peering into the binoculars once more. It wouldn't be much longer from this point.

x-x-x-x

At this point in the day it was lunch time in the Rushville marine building and prison. The one known to be, Ursa Miroku from his bounty poster sat by the door to his cell awaiting his tray of food. The guards came through the halls and would each slide the tray though slots for the prisoners to enjoy. Well, as much as you possibly could enjoy prison food anyway.

A young marine, probably no older than twenty walked up to his cell with a tray and could see the starved and hungry face of Ursa and couldn't help but smile. How could anyone be so anxious to eat crap like this that they were serving? It lacked any real nutrition, sustenance, or taste. The marine looked down the tray and eyed each individual item placed on it. There was an undercooked piece of ham, some cold raw beans, a stale piece of bread and a carton of milk. On closer inspection one would also be able to see that the milk had gone bad weeks ago.

The guard slid the tray through and let it fall to the floor with a clatter. The item on the tray all scattered across the floor and Ursa was quick to grab every bit of it and devour the food in seconds. The guard smirked once more. "It's just like they say. You are what you eat. And you…you're nothing but filth." He started to walk away but suddenly spun around to face Ursa once more. "Oh, and don't get too attached to this place. They said you're being shipped out to the real prison tonight." He turned around fully now and exited the holding area.

Ursa wiped his face and furrowed his brow. He was fuming with anger at this point and punched the brick wall of his cell. There was a heavy thud and the wall even managed to shake a bit. There was now a deep crack left into the wall. Ursa sighed and sat down on the bed in his cell. "I've got to get out of here before the transport ship arrives then…"

x-x-x-x

Just outside the shores to Rushville a marine ship was on patrol. Their flag flew high and full of pride on their mast as it came around a narrow strip of land. It was the image of a flower commonly used in Hibiscus tea, known as Karkade. This marine ship belonged to that division. Division 13, the Karkade Corps.

As the ship docked at the harbor four marine officers stepped off in an orderly fashion. They were all sweaty and beaten, probably coming back from a mission of some sort. The first to step off the vessel was a pink haired female with a naginata strapped to her back. Her eyes were a stunning light green which matched the shirt she was wearing underneath her marine coat. She stopped just before the male officer that had awaited them and introduced herself. "Kumoiro, Rin"

Following Rin was another female marine. This one had long, wiry black hair with several purple streaks running through it. Her hair managed to reach halfway down her back. She wore a loose fitting gray top beneath her marine coat and a purple skirt. As she approached the high ranking officer her legs wobbled and there was a cold sweat running down her face. She was being pretty timid, but managed to step up in the end. She stood alongside Rin. "Avery, C- C-Charlotte."

The next marine to approach had indiscernible appearance. They wore their marine coat completely buttoned up and a veil that masked their face except for the eyes. This one stood beside Charlotte. "Tavin, Giselle." By the sound of the voice this one was also female.

Now the last of the Karkade division stepped down. This one obviously the leader of the division as she walked past the rest of them and directly shook hands with the man they had met up with. She tood taller than six feet and had a slightly muscular physique. Her scarlet red hair ran down a bit past her shoulder in a messy ponytail. She wore a white, oriental blouse with gold trimming along the seams and openings along with a pair of pants of similar fashion. Her marine jacket was flung over he shoulders and on her back was something large placed in a leather holder. "Gavial, Procne."

At this point it was quite obvious that the whole division consisted of women though the still unnamed officer seemed not to care. He simply chuckled a bit before giving an introduction of his own. "I'm Commander Roland Grant and have been put in charge of this division." He gave them all reassuring smiles as he said this. Roland was a young man in his early twenties. His hair was a deep dark green that just barely managed to reach his chin. He wore his full marine uniform though the coat obviously had some modifications of his own. There was a thing chain that linked the two halves of the collar together as well as another one, this one much thick and larger, which extended from the right collar of his coat down to the middle.

The only person who seemed to have an objection with this was the red haired woman, Procne. There was an obvious vein of pure anger bulging from her head and her face was slowly turning more and more red. She seemed to be trying to keep things bottled p but suddenly exploded. "Who the hell do you think you are! How dare you guys just barge in and say you're taking custody over my division! I don't believe you're story at all, how the hell is someone so young supposed to have become a commander already!? Just because we fail one mission and accidentally destroy two other marine ships and half of a large building we get demoted and have some kid as our new leader? I don't think so, I won't stand for this!"

The purple haired girl began to open her mouth to speak but was suddenly cut off by Procne. "Don't give me none of your bull crap either ya little princess! Here's some advice for you, grow a pair!" While this was going on, both Rin and Giselle simply stood and listened. They had obviously grown used to this. Procne turned her attention back to Roland but then suddenly felt a bit faint and fell to the ground.

Rin sighed and picked her up while explaining. "I told her to watch that anger of her's, it's really bad for her already through the roof blood pressure." Rin commented in a matter of fact kind of way.

Roland roared with a fit of laughter. "So this is the dysfunctional and untamed Karkade Division? They told me I'd have a handful of work when it came to you guys. You guys get some rest because tomorrow we have work to do."

The hidden female, Giselle, then spoke for the fist time besides giving her name. "Why tomorrow?"

Roland arched an eyebrow slightly. "Hm? Oh, well tonight I have to watch out for attacks while a transport ship comes in for prisoners. You know, can't have pirates breaking their buddies out can we?" With that last remark Roland walked back into town.

As the Karkade division pulled Procne back on to their ship she suddenly stirred and awakened. Her feet hit the wooden deck of the ship hard as she still seemed to have a bit of anger left in her. "Where'd that smug bastard get off to?"

"Procne, he's gone." Rin commented flatly, as she did before. This time she was leaning on the rails of the ship and into the sea. She could hear Procne behind her stomping her feet and screaming into some wild fit as usual but she didn't seem to care at the moment. Rin's eyes suddenly shot open at the sight of something at sea though. A ship? No, worse, a pirate ship. Although the Jolly Roger had not been decorated it was still a skull and crossbones and the insignia of piracy.

Rin turned around quickly to see where Procne was, but she had vanished. "Oh no."

"Welcome to Rushville, pirate scum!" she heard a cannon from below the deck go off and the shot sped towards the ship at full speed.

x-x-x-x

Hideo leaned up against the mast of the ship as they were coming into view of Rushville. Haze was sitting on the railing of the ship and watching the island slowly come into distance, and Takato seemed to be in the same spot that he was standing in earlier. He no longer held the map and binoculars as there was no need for it at this point.

Haze looked up to their sail and was slightly confused. "Takato, won't it be bad if we sail in with a pirate flag?" She asked, speaking of the skull and crossbones on their sail.

"Oh, that? Lord Katsua said that we had to get to Rushville as soon as possible and there's no spare sail on board. He told me to just hope for the best, and that's what I'll do."

Hideo looked up. "Hey, is that a marine sh-" He was cut off by a sudden bang and he knew exactly what it was. "Haze, get down!" By that point it was too late. The cannonball hit the side of the ship and exploded, destroying the front half of the boat. Haze was nowhere in sight of the wreckage.

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Okay, hope you all enjoyed that chapter. If possible, I hope to release another new chapter sometime over the next few days for you all to enjoy.

Happy Holidays everyone and keep on reading and reviewing ^_^


	8. That's What a Captain Does

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners.

It seems in the last chapter I forgot to mention that Ursa Miroku was created by reader, Munchlax Jr, also: Happy early new year!

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 8: That's What a Captain Does**

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"Lord Katsua! Lord Katsua, you have to get up!" Hideo's vision had blurred horribly and everything had mixed into some kind of strange pinkish orange blend from the setting sun in the distance. He had an earsplitting ring vibrating through his ears and as Takato helped pull him to his feet he attempted to remember what had just happened.

His legs shook and wobbled beneath his weight and he was slowly regaining his composure. Everything within his sight began to meld back into its original place until he could see again. There was a fire on the ship, or at least half of it. The other half was just floating wreckage. The half that he and Takato were standing on however was slowly beginning to sink into the water.

There was something wrong with this picture though, only two of them. "Haze!" Hideo suddenly realized and ran to the edge of their half of the ship. His eyes quickly scanned the waters to spot her but she was nowhere to be found. "Haze! Haze! Damnit Haze, answer me!" He continued to call into the water as if it could actually respond back to him. Still he got no answer. "She's a fruit user, she can't swim…" Hideo muttered to himself.

"Lord Katsua, what are your commands?" Of course, being the captain, Hideo had to make a decision and he needed one fast. He quickly took off his coat and tossed it to Takato while snapping his goggles onto his forehead.

"Takato, I need you to hold on to that. If my explosives get wet they'll be no use. I'm going to look for Haze." He paused suddenly and turned to look at his marksman. "Your job as marksman of my crew is to take care of them. Can you manage that from this distance?" Without a bit of hesitation Takato nodded and put the coat to his side.

There wasn't another word from either of them before Hideo tossed himself into the cold waters below. Takato remained on deck and took in a heavy breath before going into a short fit of coughs. The smoke from the fire wasn't helping the situation or his aim at the moment. He pulled back an arrow on the string and tried to take aim but the smoke was beginning to burn his eyes.

"I have to do something…Lord Katsua is depending on me." Takato began to think through what few options he had. It would be waste and pretty stupid on his part to just randomly fire off arrows and hope he got the one who was using the cannon. Besides, chances were that they were below deck anyway and there was no way his arrows could pierce the hull of their marine ship.

"The best I can do is buy time then." Takato pulled out three arrows, each one having a bit of wicker at the end instead of an arrow head. Placing the ends of each of them into the fire in order to light them he lined up a shot. The distance between them was more than enough for Takato's accurate eyes to hit this target, the large flower on their sail. "Hell's Bolt."

The flame lit arrows soared through the sky leaving a light streak in their trail. Each one skillfully hit its mark and before he knew it the entire sail was lit ablaze. "Mission accomplished." Takato grinned ever so weakly; this would be a perfect setup for his next attack. With the fire spreading from the sail and to the mast now it would probably be weakened enough for him to knock it down with a few Gunpowder Bolts.

He picked up his bow once more and prepared three of the explosive rounds. As His fingers gently began to release the string though he could see a light gleam coming from the side of their vessel. The cannon! He now knew the perfect spot to take care of their weapon. "_Argh, I have a perfect shot on it but if I take the time to shoot it I'll be blasted before I can escape." _The boy thought quietly to himself, this was a now or never opportunity, there was no way he'd be able to lineup a shot from in the water in the middle of all of those crashing waves.

"Gunpowder Bolt!" His fingers let go of the string. Not wasting the time to see if his shots connected Takato made a dash for the water to escape their possible shots. It wasn't until he reached the railing until he remembered something and ran back to his previous position. There was another heavy booming noise and an explosion destroying the remaining ship half. Takato was sent sprawling to the water, with what he had gone back for; Hideo's coat.

x-x-x-x

Not leaving another word for Takato, Hideo jumped into the water below him and began his search. Takato was capable; he could handle himself up there. He gave one last look back to the surface before submerging himself deeper and deeper. Hido wasn't the smartest guy around, but he did know a bit about water pressure. As long as Haze hadn't sunken to deep they would both be fine. Hideo suddenly stopped and looked around for the briefest of moments. _"I was sure I saw something." _

He shrugged it off and continued moving, Hideo knew he could probably only last underwater for about a minute to minute and a half before needing to resurface for air. So far he had already managed to waste about twenty seconds of his oxygen. This process would probably manage to move a bit faster there was so much going on around him. Bits of debris and random materials from their ship were leaking out and just randomly floating around him. Looking down below him and into the darker parts of the water Hideo's face began to sink. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if she had already gone down there.

Hideo didn't even have a decent idea of how long he was out of it. That time period could have been anywhere from a few second to a couple of minutes, and here every moment would count. He groaned a bit, causing some air bubbles to leaves his lips and rise to the surface. Climbing on top of a bit of debris he used it to kick off and launch himself to the surface.

He rose with a heavy gasp and reached onto a bit of wood. Looking up to the ship again he could see Takato lining up a few shots. "Good." Now scanning the waters a bit his eyes shot open at the sight of a few air bubbles to the left of him. "Haze!" He took in a deep breath and dived once more.

This time he had clear sight of her and was kicking his legs as hard as he could to reach her. It seemed that some of her clothing had caught on to a bit of sinking debris. She had a few cuts on her from the explosion, but nothing too serious. Oddly though, Hideo was certain he could spot something moving beside her body.

Swimming a bit closer and more hesitant now, he neared her and attempted to take her hand before finding something sharp digging into his hand. He immediately pulled back and got into and offensive position. From behind her motionless body appeared some sort of fish, though the strangest thing about this creature would have to be its lack of eyes. He was no marine biologist, but even Hideo could tell this fish was more than likely attracted to the blood seeping from her wounds. The fish was about 4 feet long with a slender body and was quite territorial.

What was Hideo to do though? None of his explosives were on him at the moment. "Guess I'll just have to take her back by force then." Hideo swam near her body, the fish now giving him a warning snap that Hideo paid no attention to. He instead put a single one of Haze's arms over his shoulder and began to move the other until he felt something biting into his shoulder.

"Go to hell!" He screamed out from beneath the water and rammed his shoulder into the debris Haze had previously been stuck to. The fish struggled to hang on but soon lost its grip. Hideo smirked as he finished getting Haze onto his back and began moving back to the surface. As he looked up he was shocked to see that the rest of the ship had managed to disappear as well.

During his time battling the marine creature he hadn't realized the second cannon shot had gone off. He attempted to pick up his pace, but he could feel something causing him to slow down and eventually sink instead of rise. He looked down to see the same fish from before pulling them down by Haze's foot.

The captain growled under his breath and grabbed a plank of wood. "I said let her go!" he spun around to gain the little momentum he could and gave the thing a head splitting slam onto the forehead. The creature suddenly let go and dizzily began to fall to the darkness below them.

Reaching the surface Hideo immediately began to look around for Takato, but it seemed that wasn't needed. His loyal companion was already above them with a decent sized bit of debris to carry the three of them. His body was soaked and covered in blood and injuries but he still clung onto the crimson coat that his captain had given him beforehand. It was still completely dry and just as Hideo left it.

"I told you I'd k-k-keep it safe and dry, L-l-lord Katsua." The boy managed to get out as he hung to the edge of their new makeshift boat.

As Hideo heaved Haze's body on to the wood and pulled Takato up as well he couldn't help but ask why the archer would do so much just to protect a coat. "Because you ordered me to, Lord Katsua." Takato responded before passing out.

Hideo slammed his forehead into the wood and sighed. "Takato, you bastard, always following my directions to the letter." He said with a few tears forming in his eyes. He looked out to where the marine ship had previously been only now it was nowhere to be seen. It seems as though they had retreated. Hideo had no clue what Takato had done, but he was proud. Grabbing something nearby, he began their slow paddle to the shores of Rushville.

x-x-x-x

Hideo stumbled through the doors of an abandoned bar in town. Takato was hanging over one shoulder and Haze the other. As they made it through he placed each of them down before falling down to the dusty floors and struggling for breath. He was soaking wet and by this point his arms felt as if they were going to fall off. He rolled over so that he was now staring at the ceiling.

This island being a Wild Western themed island these old bars were pretty common. After finally having a bit of time to catch his breath Hideo rose to his feet and looked to Takato and Haze. They were fine, both of them still breathing and doing well, they just needed rest. Of course they still had no idea if the Ursa guy was still on the island.

x-x-x-x

As Procne began to align the cannon for what she hoped to be the final shot she could see several objects moving her way. "What?" She muttered before two of the arrows managed to connect and exploded knocking her back and against the wall of the lower cabin. There was an eerie silence before the redheaded woman let out an enraged growl that seemed to even shake the waters below their ship.

She rose back to her feet, her uniform now destroyed and singed around her right shoulder area and chest. Takato's last minute efforts seemed to have little effect on the marine as she returned to her position. "You damn pirates wanna play! Let's play damnit!" She fired the next shot and hit her mark.

Procne grinned sadistically as she rose from the cannon and looked to Giselle who was down there with her now. "You saw that? I blew those pirates to kingdom come!"

Giselle didn't say a word; she simply pointed one of her large gloved hands above them. "There's a situation on deck Procne." She quickly ran up on deck to see their mast burning down. Charlotte was throwing buckets of water on it to attempt to dowse the flames but that was having no effect.

"Where the hell is Rin?" She roared at her subordinates.

"Right here, Procne-san." The pink haired marine elegantly rose from the water, though her upper half of her body was still the same, everything below that was now a flashy display of pink scales on a fish tail body. A mermaid. As she returned to the deck the tail then split back into two legs, her pants still covering her body. "It seems the pirate is swimming his way back to shore. I think there's only one of them. Should I go after him?"

"No, take care of this fire first, then we'll give chase." Procne commanded as she looked out into the distance, she could catch a small glimpse of Hideo paddling his way to shore.

Rin seemed to understand and pulled out her weapon, a full seven foot long naginata. "Rip Tide!" She called while jumping back into the water. Once she did so she gave the weapon a powerful swing through the currents and sent a powerful surge of water at the mast. Perhaps to powerful as the entire thing fell upon collision.

"Damnit Rin, I said put out the fire! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Sorry, guess I don't know my own strength." The mermaid said shyly while climbing back on the ship. "At least the fire's out though Procne-san."

The angry woman slammed her hand into her forehead. "Fine, we'll bring the ship into the port and then chase them down. Seeing as how we no longer have a mast we'll have to use our secret weapon." At the sound of this everyone else besides Procne seemed to groan. "Get below deck and get moving! Karkade pedal!"

In one of the lower rooms of the ship every member of Karkade except Procne climbed onto their bicycle seat and began pedaling away. Small paddles below their ship began to rotate and they slowly made their way back to the island.

"Come on! You can pedal faster than that you useless bunch of brats!"

x-x-x-x

Haze slowly began to open her eyes as she saw Hideo looking outside the doors of the barn. "What's going on?"

"Shh!" He responded as he poked his head back in. "Marine are checking houses, they're on their way here," he whispered to her as he took up his coat and threw it on.

"Don't tell me you're going to fight them." Just from his appearance at the moment it was obvious that Hideo had seen better days. Haze attempted to stand to her feet but winced in pain and fell back down.

"Seems like you broke something. Just sit here and rest, I'll throw them off our trail." He reached into his coat and began to feel around for what was useable and to see what he actually had on him at the moment. "If I don't come back in a few hours I want you two to find a ship and get out of here." Hideo prepared to walk out the door.

"Stop!" She suddenly called across the room. "Let me help you, there's no reason for you to go out there alone."

"Sure there is," Hideo responded and gave his usual childish grin. "That's what a captain does. That's more than enough reason for me to go out there."

Hideo stepped outside and that was the last Haze saw of him. From outside she could hear several explosions and screams. Then gunshots, the sounds of windows shattering, then silence. Walking past one of the windows she saw the face of an angry red haired marine.

"Looks like we have another one for the transport ship tonight." In handcuffs and being held by a few marine soldiers behind her was none other than Hideo.

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Well, hope you guys liked that chapter. I think it moved the plot for this next arc along nicely as well as managed to show a bit more on the characters' of Hideo and Takato. I tried to get some of Haze in there at the end, but I guess I'll save some more of that for the next chapter.

Also, if you look at my profile you'll see I have a link to my Deviantart page now. I did a few attempts at drawing the characters in this story so you can go ahead and have a look if you want. Please know that my skills are more in writing than drawing so they're not that great :p


	9. The Captain's Order

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners.

It's a new year and things have been going alright I guess, school's been pretty hectic so I wasn't able to start on this chapter until this weekend. Better late than never of course.

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 9: The Captain's Order**

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As Hideo stepped outside of their hideout he made a quick scan of the area and new the perfect distraction. He had no intentions of being captured, but there was no way he could let them find the building Haze and Takato were in. As the marines came around the corner they were only a few buildings away from their position. It was now or never.

He stood up on top of a nearby building and threw several Crimson Bombers on another old bar. The entire area they were in was pretty much a ghost town so he was sure no one would be around to get hurt by his actions.

As the old wooden structure lit into a blaze the marines easily spotted him and began their counterattack. Hideo jumped off of the building and began to make a run for it, hoping to lead them away from the area but there was a sudden, splitting pain in his leg. He stopped and looked down, just as he thought. A bullet had managed to hit him, clean through his right leg and out the other side. He placed the foot forward and attempted to run once again but fell face first into the dirt.

There were screams coming from the nearby town as citizens heard the various explosions and gunshots. Hideo was disappointed that he didn't manage to lead them away, now he just had to hope that the other weren't found.

The marines by this point had surrounded him and were standing in a circle around him, rifles were now aimed to kill at the sight of resistance. Procne squeezed in between them and pulled Hideo off the ground by his dirty and still soaked gray hair. "Yep, this is the one we met out in the waters. He used explosives out there as well. Take him to the base for holding until the ship arrives." She tossed him aside and the soldiers followed their commands and proceeded to cuff him and drag him away.

Hideo showed no resistance, he simply went with it. There was nothing he could do at this point. His head hung low and his hair seemed to follow in suit and shadowed his face. He didn't want to be seen this way, especially after all those times he boasted about taking over the world. At least he kept his crew safe though.

"He was probably trying to lead us away from something; otherwise he wouldn't have blown up that building. Search the area with caution, we don't know how many there could possibly be." Hideo's eyes shot wide at the sound of this, the red haired marine simply smiled a malicious grin.

As they pulled him away Hideo looked into the window of the bar and for a brief moment his eyes met with Haze's. He could see her reach for her sword but he made a simple disapproving shake with his head and motioned at the marines. She didn't seem to get this last gesture because by then they had already walked past this particular building.

A small group took Hideo away as another searched the area. They kicked the door open to the bar that Haze and Takato were in. The building was empty.

x-x-x-x

The marines searched the vicinity for a decent half an hour but found nothing. He could hear them telling this to Procne on the way to the base and was relieved. It had been at least another half hour since then and Hideo was now being walked to his cell. Seeing as how most of the criminals, including himself, would be sent out tonight they tossed him into a random cell and locked him in.

"Come on, don't I even get any welcome chocolate?" he whined childishly as he got back to a sitting position, attempting to avoid the fly-swarmed toilet in the corner of the tiny cage like cell. "You guys could at least get me some first aid after you decided to shoot me ya know." He had complained a little bit about the bullet wound on the way to the jail as well. This continual whining pretty much earned him a rifle butt to the face by Procne and her screaming at him about some completely irrelevant things. In the end he was forced to just tie something around it and deal with the pain.

He could hear some other prisoners say some obscene things along with telling him to shut his mouth. He sighed and leaned against the wall. He had managed a good run in this pirate thing he supposed. Better than a lot of people anyway.

The wooden bed was old and weak, he pulled a part of it off and began running it up and down the bars of his cell. "Hey, guard! Guard!" He called louder as he moved it faster across the bars. He didn't see it coming but was shortly afterwards met with a fist in the face. Hideo reared back while holding his nose.

"What do you want scum?" The guard cracked his knuckles and wiped some blood on his black pants.

"What did you punch me for? I was just going to ask when we're gonna eat. I'm getting pretty hungry and all, I haven't eaten anything in a while." The guard raised an eyebrow and grinned. He turned around and disappeared from sight. A couple minutes later he showed up again and slid a tray through.

Hideo merely glanced at the disgusting things they piled on there to eat and looked back to the guard with a look of disgust. "Umm, can I get this milk in strawberry or something? And I don't think ham is supposed to look like that."

The guard merely laughed and walked away. "No wonder you got caught so easily. Strawberry milk, hahaha."

The captain rolled his eyes and looked down at the tray once more, there was no way he'd be eating this crap. "Umm, anyone else want this?" There were a variety of replies from the cells around him, though the general answer seemed to be "Feed it to the scrawny brat to your right."

He saw a small, almost fragile looking hand reach out from the cell on side of his. Reluctantly, Hideo handed things to him one by one until his tray was empty. The other criminals seemed to erupt in a mild laughter. "I told you he'd eat it. Ursa will eat anything he can get his hands on."

That name, it seemed familiar. Hideo paused for a moment, thinking on it before coming to sudden realization. He took off his coat and wrapped it around his fist. Walking over to the tiny mirror in his cell he punched it and grabbed a shard of glass. He carefully picked it up and stuck his hand out between the bars. Once he managed to position it correctly he had a clear view of the boy in the next cell.

"I finally found you! The shipwright, Ursa Miroku!" The room was eerily silent and from the reflection Hideo caught a glimpse of Ursa rising to his feet and looking into the shard as well. He didn't say a word however. "Me and my pirate crew specifically came to this island just to get you out of here!"

There was another upset of laughter at the sound of this. "You, in a pirate crew? Don't kid yourself boy." Hideo managed to ignore them at the sound of Ursa finally speaking up. It was a quiet and weak tone, but at least he was saying things now.

"You're going to get me out of here?" His voice sounded so optimistic, it really did dishearten Hideo that he had to tell him the truth of the situation.

"I'm sorry, I don't know. Me being thrown in jail wasn't part of the plan."

x-x-x-x

Haze poked her head out from one of the loose floorboards and pulled herself as well as Takato out. It was cold, dirty, and disgusting down there but it was all they could do to avoid detection. Takato was awake by this point but was still feeling kind of weak.

They both knew the seriousness of the situation and knew how dangerous it was right now. Takato had only been barely conscious at the time but even he had seen Hideo get carried away by the soldiers.

Haze stood to her feet and put her sword on her back. "We have to move fast to save Hideo." Her voice was strong and determined as she got ready to exit and head out the door. She only stopped once she saw Takato hadn't moved in the least. "What's wrong? Still can't stand?"

"We're not going to go out and save Lord Katsua. We're going to stay out here and hold our position for the night until we can get a ship and leave." His voice was his usual calm and steady one though there was an odd uncertainty within it, something not displayed by Takato until now."

Haze turned around and looked him straight in his distant brown eyes. "What are you saying? He's our captain, of course we have to save him."

"He gave us a direct order before he was taken away If he doesn't show up again in a few hours we leave. For now we're just going to sit here and wait. That's an order from me."

"Order from you?!" She almost screamed, but remembered their current situation and clamed herself. "What makes you the leader now?"

"I'm sure that I'm Lord Katsua's right hand man and of course must be his first mate. It's my job to take charge if he's not around. We were also given a direct order not to try to save him. As he is my lord I must obey him until the end." Haze's face shrunk into somewhat of an enraged frown.

"Who cares what orders he gave? His life is at risk now. And as far as I'm concerned we both have an equal standing in decision making as Hideo has not selected a first mate yet."

There was silence before Takato began to speak again. "Do what you want, but as a simple servant of my lord I will not go against an order."

"You still don't get it do you?" She pulled her hand back and it snapped forward again in the form of a powerful smack to Takato's face. Haze had had enough of this foolishness. "You still don't get that Hideo doesn't want you to be his servant, he just wants you to be a friend, a…" She struggled to fin the word.

Takato rubbed his face as he remembered the word she was looking for.

_**Flashback**_

"_I…I don't know." Haze responded and her head suddenly hung low._

_When she looked up she could see shining blue eyes staring back into hers. It was Hideo. "It's okay, we can cross that road when we get there. I'm even willing to promise on my very own life and soul that I'll help my nakama achieve their goals!"_

"_Nakama?" Both Haze and Takato questioned at the same time._

"_Don't you two know? Being in my crew makes us all family, and there's nothing that can possibly change that."_

_**Flashback End**_

"Nakama." Takato finally muttered and started to pick up his bow and quiver of arrows. Haze smiled as she also remembered that word, the one they learned back on Kuro's ship.

x-x-x-x

A small group of marines were patrolling the area, though the thing that made them stand out was the fact that they were riding on top of horses. This was a common feature of Rushville and the reason for its name. The truth was that almost everyone on this island owned at least on horse and riding them around town was quite normal.

The marines seemed to be watching the area for any suspicious activity or sign of pirates. With a ship going out to the prison tonight there was always the chance of criminals attempting to break out their buddies. One of them sat high upon his steed and had just pulled out a bottle of liquor. He moved the glass towards his lips but caught a slight gleam in the distance.

Suddenly, the glass shattered in his hand and he fell from the horse. The other marines prepared their rifles but they all met a similar fate. They were either hit with some kind of weird pink substance or had an arrow sticking out of their chest. Stepping out from the shadows, Haze and Takato both managed to grab a horse and got on awkwardly.

It was obvious neither of them had much horse riding experience. Nonetheless, they grabbed hold of the reins and lead the horses off towards town. "Yeeeeehaaaawwwww! This is way too much fun!" Haze screamed as she felt the cold night air blow through her long hair.

Takato held a finger to his lips, indicating for her to be quiet. She simply smiled and laughed. "Lighten up Takato. You're always so serious." She led the reins of her horse to bump into the side of Takato's. He simply shook his head at Haze's attempt to lighten the mood on the way to their destination.

The two gave each other one last glance before going separate directions. Everything would be well as long as they managed to break Hideo out before the ship left.

One of the marines they left behind slowly raised an arm to his face. He was weak, but had enough strength to do one last thing. He began to speak into a small snail like device. "We've found the pirates; they're making their way into town by horseback."

x-x-x-x

Takato was making his way to the marine base by horseback and thanks to this was saving a large amount of time rather than if they had ran. Haze on the other hand was travelling to the docks to get a ship. After this whole thing had been done they would need a way t escape and the only way currently possible was if they managed to get a vessel. Their old one had been destroyed upon arrival so that wasn't an option.

Takato had insisted that he be the one to go to the base to find Hideo. He thought of it more to be a thing of duty and to somewhat repent for the thought of leaving his Lord to be taken away.

Along the road's path however there seemed to be something in the distance. Men stood at the ready across the road, creating an effective blockade. They were all marine soldier and each was armed with a rifle, poised and ready to fire. Standing behind them was a purple haired marine. She looked pretty queasy at the moment and was sweating bullets. Her body shook violently as the marines in line began to shout several things.

"Charlotte! Chief Warrant Officer, Charlotte, should we fire?!" She seemed to suddenly snap out of her daze and raised an arm towards Takato while letting out a meek "Fire." This was all they needed and at once all of the men shot towards the archer.

Luckily for Takato, her hesitation had given him enough time to make his narrow escape as he lead his horse back behind a nearby home. They clearly evacuated this section of the town as the homes were all empty. He gave the reins a powerful tug and the two of them emerged from hiding right into the line of fire. The marines were ready to fire once again but their leader was reluctant once again.

Takato had planned on this and pulled up on the reins. The horse rose its front legs high into the air and brought them back down on top of a small group of soldiers. Takato on the other hand unloaded several Gunpowder bolts to clear out more of the men.

"Fire." The girl managed to finally get out. The remaining men aimed and fired first at Takato's getaway vehicle, in this case, the horse. The mighty steed fell to the ground with several fresh bullet wounds. Takato was no emotionless being and was hurt by the fact that he had involved this innocent creature in his battles. He took out the remaining men with a few more arrows and proceeded to help the horse.

Charlotte seemed to be cowering off to the side, rocking back and forth in a fetal position. "Messy, messy, messy. My clothes, they have been stained, they're unclean." She had a bit of blood from the other marines and dirt from the explosion scattered all over her uniform.

Takato looked to her with a bit of concern but shrugged it off. It seemed the mare had only taken grazing flesh wounds and could still stand. He led it by the reins and pointed off to a random direction. It seemed to understand and fled the area. Takato no longer wanted to involve it in this fight.

He turned back and started towards the base once again but now Charlotte was standing in his way. Though, she seemed to be different now. "Excuse me, I'd rather get by without having to hurt you so please move." He tried to be as polite as possible

Charlotte grinned evilly, something that caught Takato off guard. "You won't make it past this street pirate!" She charged at him. Takato really didn't want to waste time fighting her, but with such reckless fighting tactics this wouldn't take long. He quickly loaded an arrow and fired at the marine but once it made contact it past straight through her body and out the other side.

"A logia!" Takato's eyes went wide.

x-x-x-x

Haze hopped off of her horse and took a step out on the wooden deck. It was her job to prepare a getaway ship for them. She looked around eyeing each one. She didn't know much about ships, but they would need a fast one for their escape. None of the bulky ones would be too great for this; she was looking for more of a lean, speedy vessel.

The ship that really caught her attention was the one at the end of the deck and covered in a veil. She couldn't see it of course, but she had a good feeling about this one. She placed a hand on the veil, but pulled back when she heard something beneath her. Quickly she jumped back and got into a fighting position.

A large blade suddenly stabbed out from where she was previously standing. There was something moving in the water beneath the deck. There was a sudden splash before the enemy made their appearance on land as well. It was a pink haired marine and obviously a mermaid as her legs were previously a single tail before touching ground.

"I thought you pirates might come here to escape if there were anymore of you on the island. My name is Kumoiro, Rin. This is where you meet your end." She spun the bladed pole weapon several times overhead before letting it skip over the water a bit. The water seemed to follow her whims as it rose in the form of a large slicing wave.

Haze unsheathed her nodachi with swiftness and countered the blast of water with a pink blast of energy from her own weapon. There was a small explosion of water as the area was soaked now.

"You seem to be a fun one." Rin commented as she spun the weapon for another assault.

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I hope everyone enjoyed that chapter, it was pretty fun for me to write as well. These chapters are always a lot of work but rewarding in the end when I can see the reviews of satisfied readers ^_^

Thank you everyone who reads, reviews, and sends in character. You can expect a new chapter next weekend and I hope you've all had a great new year so far!


	10. Fighters of the Karkade Divison

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners.

And here it is, a day later than I planned for it be, but hey, sometimes things just go like that. Enjoy ^_^

Oh yeah, almost forgot. We're double digit chapters now!

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 10: Fighters of the Karkade Division**

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There was the sudden sound of metal clashing on metal as the two weapon masters collided with equally powerful blows. The water below the wooden dock they stood upon shook violently just from the force of their weapons colliding. They seemed to be at a stalemate as the two of them pressed on their weapon to attempt to gain the upper hand in this power struggle. It was Haze's nodachi against Rin's naginata. Both weapons essentially were used for the same purpose when it came to combat as well as had equal reach to each other. No weapon held an advantage over the other.

As Rin stepped back to make distance between them once again their weapon grinded against eachother slightly and sparks flew into the air. Neither weapon had been damaged, indicating that the quality of both of them was pretty high.

Rin looked back to Haze as the swordsman had begun to breath heavily, the mermaid couldn't help but spread her lips into a small smirk. "Come on dear, I haven't even gotten serious yet and you're already beginning to tire?" She commented with disappointed sarcasm.

Rin seemed to be enjoying this, but Haze on the other hand was only serving to grow angrier. This mermaid was making a joke out of this while her captain's life was on the line. Every moment wasted fighting her was time that could be potentially spent helping. "How about you just get out of my way before I do get serious?"

Rin adjusted her hair slightly as she talked. She had stabbed her naginata into the ground and was hardly even paying attention to Haze at this point, obviously an attempt to annoy her. "You know, I never did understand you pirates. Such selfish people you are. Stealing from innocent people and sailing the seas causing trouble. Yet you always say you have some kind of honor amongst yourselves. It doesn't make sense."

A slightly red aura ran down the length of Haze's arm and down to the blade of her sword. In one might swing she fired off an arc of this energy at the mermaid. Rin got a tight grip on her weapon and instantly pulled it out from the wood. As she did so she managed to pull out a chunk of the deck as well as bringing up a surge of water to counter the energy attack.

Rin laughed now. "It's all too easy to get into the heads of you pirates. Get a little riled up and you're suddenly so reckless."

Haze didn't seem to hear her say this though. By using the sudden splash of water as cover she had already moved in on the marine and was in perfect striking distance. "Hana-Kai!" She called her attack while making a swing at the mermaid's chest. Rin seemed to be caught off guard at first glance, but quickly regained composure and swung her blade down in a quick slash.

Their weapons collided and Rin successfully deflected the attack, though it didn't end there. "Undertow Crush!" She commanded as she used the momentum of the swing to keep her weapon going. Her naginata spun around in her hand so that it was now being held upside down. It continued to swing downward and as Haze's body was now wide open, the butt of the handled slammed into her head. The swordsman was then pushed down and pinned to the dock by pure strength alone. She struggled for breath as Rin began to press harder on her chest.

Laying the sword to her side, she took a grasp on the weapons handle and swung it behind her, lifting Rin up as well and throwing the pink haired woman across the dock. Haze was quick to get back on her feet and leaped into the air before Rin could get up as well.

As she came down her sword began to glow a bright red. Rin had no time to get up to avoid this attack, she'd have to block it instead. She raised the naginata and used the length of the handle to block. As Haze made contact there was a sudden explosion of red energy and a torrent of water splashing upwards. "Hanazono! (Flower Garden)" She screamed in the midst of the attack. Around the area there were bits of red energy floating on the dock and atop the water, giving the vicinity the look of an actual flower bed. Where Rin had once been was now just a massive hole in the deck.

Haze exhaled slightly as sweat ran down from her forehead. The energy of her weapon shifted from red back to its usual pink and the fight was over. The swordsman was exhausted. Resheathing her blade she slowly approached the veiled ship from before, but stopped. The fight wasn't over yet.

"Don't take me so lightly! It truly is insulting to be underestimated by a pirate of all people." The mermaid actually sounded angered for once since the fight had started. The blade of her naginata suddenly stabbed into a side of the deck and raced down to the other end, moving like a bladed shark fin. Haze raced to get off the dock, but its wooden support had been cut and it not fell into the water below. It managed to stay a float but rocked back and forth dangerously.

This was not good. Making her way to the end of the dock to escape she was stopped by a sudden waved rising from the water. She grabbed hold of the edge of the dock and held tightly as the wave crashed down on her. The worst thing she could right now was to have an attack like that draw her into the water. When she opened here eyes again she was soaked to the bone and had been drawn out in the middle of the water. It was a good thirty feet or so from where they previously were.

The blade of the naginata suddenly rose from the water like a shark fin once again and swam around curiously. "I see you managed to stay top side huh? Oh well, it's only a matter of time before the shark manages to get their prey." The blade suddenly raced forward towards Haze and she rolled across the deck to avoid, being careful not to accidently go over the edge and into the water.

Looking back at the new makeshift raft it had now been effectively cut in half and the other half now sinking. "You're just going to continue cutting away at it until I'm forced into the water!"

"Oh, you're smarter than the average pirate aren't you?" Rin commented and charged again.

x-x-x-x

Charlotte grinned evilly, something that caught Takato off guard. "You won't make it past this street pirate!" She charged at him. Takato really didn't want to waste time fighting her, but with such reckless fighting tactics this wouldn't take long. He quickly loaded an arrow and fired at the marine but once it made contact it passed straight through her body and out the other side.

"A logia!" Takato's eyes went wide.

Charlotte placed her hand on Takato's chest; he had still been momentarily frozen by the shock of her devil fruit ability. As she did this, her arm suddenly molded into an odd black liquid. It dripped to the floor and actually spread a bit across his chest. "Clean Sweep!" A sudden surge of the liquid fired from her arm and propelled Takato backwards and into the wall of a building. It managed to hold him there as he struggled to move.

"What is this stuff? It's so thick and adhesive." He muttered to himself, he was getting nowhere trying to get out of the stuff.

"That doesn't matter to you. Now I'll be taking you to the prison for tonight." She fired a small orb of the liquid and it managed to stick to Takato's mouth and nose, preventing him for breathing. He could tell that she would just wait until he passed out and then take him away. That couldn't happen.

Underneath the black mass of sludge one of his hands managed to get hold of one of his knives and he quickly sliced his way free. Removing the liquid from his face he breathed heavily to get oxygen back in his system.

Charlotte however was not pleased by this at all, a black orb of the liquid began to from and take shape around Takato's head, though he quickly sliced this open and escaped once again. "You keep doing this and I'll be forced to use lethal attacks pirate!" She screamed out in frustration and forced the sludge still stuck to the wall to shoot out in spikes.

Takato managed to duck and roll away from these attacks but still took several cuts and stabs. He stopped in place though and spat out bits of the black stuff. "I know what you're made of now. This should be a pretty simple fight." He reached into his quiver and pulled out a Gunpowder Bolt. "You're logia is made of tar, which is a flammable substance. Goodbye, Tar Woman" He loaded the bolt and fired.

Just before it made contact with the logia user however she split her body in half and let it pass through the opening. The arrow went on and exploded as it made contact with a nearby building.

"You're pretty smart to guess my logia, but don't ever call me Tar Woman again! Before he could put the next bolt to the bow the tar on the ground began to move swell into the shape of four large hands, each one grabbing one of Takato's limbs. "You ruined my clothing with that stunt earlier and made me dirty. Filth is a sin! A horrible, horrible sin! Pirates are probably the filthiest things in this world though, so if I must lower myself to the level of hideous tar to cleanse the world, then I will."

He used the bolt he had previously prepared to load and stabbed it into the tar restraining him. The resulting explosion tossed him into the wall, but at least he was free now.

"Don't ease up yet! Clean Water Bath!" Charlotte's legs now turned into the black substance and actually spread to the ground, essentially turning the area into a mini tar pit. Takato attempted to raise his feet but found them to be glued to the ground.

"Well, you just made things much easier for me marine." He threw another gunpowder bolt into the tar near Charlotte and watched it go up in flames. The marine quickly controlled the substance and threw it to the side to prevent herself from being caught in it. Using that move as a distraction however, Takato threw another arrow at her that managed to lodge itself into her arm.

He waited for the explosion and flames to occur, but it never did. She simply pulled it out and tossed it to the floor. Had it been a dud? "Too easy. I may not be a chemist, but I know my basic science. Fire and explosives need oxygen to react and combust, I simply had to use my abilities to smother the arrow and prevent any air from reaching it.

Takato faltered, without being able to exploit her weakness how could he win. There was no water around, so that wasn't an option. And he obviously didn't have any seastone on him.

"Clean Cut!" A sudden spike of tar shot from the ground and impaled the boy against the wall. Blood managed to run down the spike and into the pool of black on the ground. Takato didn't move, he remained lifeless against the wall. "Don't try to play possum. I only stabbed you through the shoulder."

Takato had been lucky that she wasn't going to kill him. If she had really wanted to that could've been a lethal blow. The spike was only inches away from his heart. The spike forcefully pulled itself out and he fell to the ground. He landed on his back and was stuck there due to the tar on the ground as well as the wall.

"Well, it's over now pirate." Charlotte said as she stood over him, Takato quickly shot out his last able gunpowder bolt and it harmlessly passed through her and into the sky above them. She sighed slightly at his last futile attempt and formed an orb of tar around his head. The marksman struggled for breath for a while, but exhaustion and now, lack of oxygen, caught up to him and he lost consciousness. Charlotte was prepared to leave the area until the wall before her was now engulfed in flames.

Inspecting the wooden wall up and down, she realized that the flames had started from the roof. "That last arrow!" The combination of the arrow as well as the tar spread all over the wall had engulfed the building in flames. The flames quickly spread down the building and on the marine, forcing her to expel all the tar in the area. Though she had expected this to keep her safe from being lit ablaze it was already too late, the fire was spreading too quickly on the black surface.

In a panic she hit the floor and began to roll around in an effort to put the flames out. Unexpectedly, Takato then rose to his feet, clear of all the tar previously holding him.

"You! I thought you were knocked out cold!" She screamed while still rolling.

"Oh that? While working for my original lord, Lord Oda, I was taught many things in order to be an effective tool and assassin. That includes feigning consciousness and even stopping my own heart beat for a short period of time." Takato mentioned as if it were no big deal, as he put away his bow and knives. "Thank you for an interesting battle Ms. Charlotte. If you just keep rolling around like that ma'am then you should be okay after a while. Though I'd suggest not going through any strenuous activity afterwards."

Still rolling around in a frenzy Charlotte began to scream even louder than before. "Ms?! Ma'am?! I'm not old! I'm only 22!" By this point her voice wasn't heard though, Takato had already taken off to the marine building.

x-x-x-x

Takato stood on a hill over the marine base looking down on them with his accurate eyes. He stabbed on of his knives into a tree beside him. He had been too late. The prisoners had all already been loaded on the ship and the vessel was now taking off from the harbor. He sat there gripping his bleeding shoulder. Had all his effort been for naught?

"No, I'll continue fighting for my lord." He readied an arrow into his bow and made his way down to the marine base. "Even if it means the death of me." He slowly began to limp down the hill.

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Whoo, that chapter took a bit longer to type than I thought it would. Mostly because of the fights though. I often typed them, didn't like how they went and then completely redid the battle. It happened about twice with Haze's and probably 2-3 times with Takato's as well

Anyway, sorry for the delay, hope you enjoyed, see you next week~


	11. We are the Pirates!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners. I've been doing this for like 10 chapters now though so I think I'll stop with the disclaimers.

So yeah recently started reading Fairy Tail and have really gotten into, I'm currently on about chapter 70 and am really enjoying it. So yeah, if you read the series and you start seeing something familiar abilities or characters. It's probably why :D Maybe I should start typing stuff about me here at the top more often. Well, whatever, on to the story!

Also, if anyone was wondering, Charlotte's tar logia is known as the Yany yani no mi.

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 11: We are the _____ Pirates!**

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"Come on, move along damnit!" A marine yelled as they led the prisoners on to the ship in shackles. Along the way to the vessel there were soldiers standing along the sides armed with rifles and told to fire on the slightest bit of rebellion. Hideo looked to Ursa and hung his head down low.

"Don't feel too bad about yourself. At least you tried." Ursa mumbled as the marines continued to yell at them. Hideo let out an exhausted sigh, maybe prison wouldn't be too bad right? A marine hit him in the back with the rifle telling him to speed up.

He picked up the pace and raised his head to see a few familiar faces. There was that red headed woman that caught him earlier back in town, but that wasn't what caught his eye. It was the man in the chained overcoat standing beside her. He seemed to have a strange smile on his face and told one of the guard to stop the line for a moment. He approached Hideo and stood only a few inches away from him, the two were looking at each other eye to eye.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you leave Hanabi Island on that stupid dream of yours. Don't think that I can just help you get off scotch free either." Roland said in a tone resembling a parent scolding their child.

Hideo clicked his teeth slightly. "Who said I was going to ask you to? And how many times have I told you that my dream is not stupid. This is only a minor set back. I will take over the world!" He screamed that last part out loud enough for everyone else on the docks to hear. Some of the marines began to crack up at this remark, including Procne. Hideo's face turned a burning red from the anger.

Roland placed a large hand on Hideo's dirty and matted hair before turning back away from him. "You think if you do manage this insane dream then Kara will be happy?" He motioned for the guards to begin to move the line towards the ship again.

"No. _When _I accomplish this goal, I'll know that I can finally sleep at night without tossing and turning and worrying. What happened to you though Roland? You used to believe, especially back when you and Kara were together."

Roland's feet came to a sudden stop and his fist suddenly clenched tight. "How would I ever believe in fantasies such as those?" Hideo managed to catch one last glimpse of his old friend before he was shoved onto the marine ship. In less than ten minutes they finally departed the island.

x-x-x-x

"Oh, you're smarter than the average pirate aren't you?" Haze heard rin comment from underwater as she charged the floating platform once again. The swordsman quickly fired several bursts of pink energy from her hand into the water at a rapid pace. The naginata seemed to stop and disappear underneath the water.

"I managed to buy myself a little time, but she won't stop there." Haze had learned much through the course of this battle. A blade suddenly stabbed through the wooden platform and started to slice down the length of it. That was another chunk of her safe area destroyed. The more that was removed, the less room she had to stand on and the easier the target she was.

"Guess this is it for you pirate." The blade rose from the water once more and sped towards her again. Haze met the blade head on with her sword and at the force of the clash the water began to tremble and shake violently. "Don't underestimate my strength." Haze could suddenly feel her feet sliding across the dock and hear the wood crunching from the blade as it continued through.

"Too strong." Pink energy began to flow around her arms and legs as she felt a sudden boost in strength. She wouldn't be able to keep up this boost in power for long. Haze put a foot forward, then the next before stabbing her sword through the wood and in the water. "Come out where I can see you!" She rose the blade up and out from the water and something went flying through the air. It came back down and stabbed itself into the dock. It was her naginata.

Haze took hold of the weapon and the energy surrounding her limbs dissipated except for her left arm. She took aim and threw the weapon as far as she could and out to the ocean. "Let's see how good you are without it."

"Fine by me. Or have you forgotten that the moment you land in the water you lose?" Haze suddenly fell to her knees as the rest of the energy dissipated from her arm. The waters suddenly began surge as Rin's voice was heard from underneath. "Dolphin Charge!" Although Haze couldn't see it, from underneath the platform water began to surge around Rin's hands as she brought a current from underwater and slammed into the bottom of the dock.

The force of the blow carried enough strength that the platform actually began to tip and slowly moved towards capsizing. Haze leaped up and below her could see the rest of the dock sink into the ocean. The only thing that was below her was open sea and the nearest bit of land was about forty feet away.

"Where will you run now pirate?" Rin finally poked her head out of the water and waited for the girl to fall. Haze panicked trying to think of what to do, but no ideas came to mind. As she fell back down she simply put her hands in front of her and closed her eyes as she waited for the undeniable splash into the water. There was no splash though, the devil fruit user didn't even end up wet at all. She opened her eyes to see a bit of pink energy suspended just before her that she had managed to land on.

"Did I do this?" Feeling her body beginning to weaken as well as the energy platform she had created she input a bit of power into her legs and kicked off with great strength, back towards the harbor. She knew this wouldn't be enough however. Turning around Haze noticed that Rin was out of sight, but she was of no concern right now. Placing both hands together and aiming at the water below she unleashed a powerful blast of energy for a bit of extra thrust.

She was breathing hard now and struggling to keep her eyes open yet there was just a bit more distance in between her and one of the ships. She steadied her shaking hand as she prepared to fire at the water again, but now she could see something moving along the surface, that familiar blade. It was the mermaid.

Making another platform just large enough for a single foot, she leaped off and rolled across the deck of the ship. Haze tried to stand on her feet, but felt that her legs weren't responding. She had used too much energy with those earlier attacks.

"I honestly wasn't expecting that little trick there pirate, but it seems you're now spent." As Rin raised her naginata for the final blow Haze released a small bit of energy from her palm and fired the katana upwards. Rin staggered back in order to avoid it her naginata had been hit and fell from her hands and she could now feel something on her leg.

Haze held on weakly to the mermaid's ankle. "I really don't like using this power, but I have to in order to help my nakama. Osozaki (Late Blooming)" Rin's legs began to shake as she fell to a knee and finally sprawled out on the deck.

"I can't move. What did you do?!" Haze rose to her feet as if nothing had happened before. Her wounds from the fight were still bleeding but it seemed her strength was restored.

"I just borrowed a bit of your energy for a while." Grabbing her sword she slowly placed it back in its sheath and left the mermaid behind. It was a narrow victory, but the battle was hers.

x-x-x-x

Marines were littered across the entrance to the harbor, most of them had arrows stabbing out from their body in several places. Takato stood out at the edge of the docks and watched as the ship managed to get further and further away from him, and with it, his lord. Marines stared him down, all in a line and prepared to fire. Leading this group was of course Procne and Roland of the Karkade division.

"What will you do now pirate? Your captain is long gone and you're surrounded. Just turn yourself in and I'll attempt to lessen the punishment." Roland mentioned as Procne turned around and gave him a swift kick to the groin. The large man fell to his knees and the marines standing around faltered a bit out of shock.

"Hell no! There's no way we're going easy on this brat! He uses arrows, I'm sure he's the one who shot me earlier tonight with that damned explosive." Roland rose to his feet once again, sweat running down the length of his face and his legs shaking. He was struggling to stand though didn't want to show it.

"Regardless, this is the end." He muttered slowly.

"Then I'll just take my chances out at sea then. I'll follow after this ship to the ends of the earth if I have to." He leaned back and fell from the docks and into the water. In nearly an instant he was swinging his arms wildly as his body propelled itself through the water.

"Sir, should we fire!?" A soldier asked and Roland thought it over a moment.

"No, leave him be. He'll never reach that ship by sheer force of will anyway, even if he did there's nothing he'd be able to do once he got there besides being taken into custody. The way I see it, he's not our problem anymore." Roland turned his back and motioned for the rest of his men to follow.

Procne was the only left still standing, along with the other marine from Karkade; the heavily clothed member known as Giselle. " You want me to go after him don't you?" Procne simply nodded as she clenched a fist tight and went to catch up with the rest of the soldiers. Giselle groaned slightly before removing her coat to reveal a feathered body with large wings extending from the sides of her arms. "I haven't had a meal in a while. I hope this human taste pretty well. Removing the bit of cloth covering her face she elso revealed a beak instead of a mouth.

Letting out an earsplitting shriek she took a flight and rose into the air. Takato was trying his heart out to reach the ship, but it seemed to only get further away, the exhaustion and wounds he took from that earlier fight only served to slow him down even more. Hearing the screech he turned to see the woman in the air. "Another devil fruit user?"

Giselle smiled with glee at the thought of a feast and dived down at the boy, there was a sudden boom howver and the bird woman stopped in her track as a cannonball barely missed her and continued on to slam into the marine building. Everyone at the harbor turned to see an unexpected sight.

"Darn, seems like I missed." Haze stood on top of a large ship, probably a smaller version of a Galleon. Standing on the deck of this ship was Haze as she loaded another cannonball. The vessel looked almost brand new as it seemed to almost literally shine in the moonlight. The ship's figurehead was the head of a bull with oversized horns and a sinister grin spreading from one side of its face to the other. On either side of the ship there were large wooden projections in the shape of bull's legs. "Hold on tight Takato!" There was another shot from the cannon, this one managing to graze by Giselle and send her crashing back to the docks.

Roland led the soldiers once again as they all fired on the ship. Haze ducked down as shots fired off randomly and hit the sides of the ship. Crawling across the deck she managed to get to the door and went to the lower levels of the ship.

"Come on men! We're going out there. We need to support the transport vessel and stop those pirates." The men all rose their rifles in agreement and boarded several ships.

Down below the deckhaze was amazed to find several odd controls in a room. There was a telescope that let anyone down there see what was going on above the deck. She looked out and rotated the sight slightly to see the marines boarding their ships and beginning to move. Though there was something else that she managed to catch site of on the ship.

Taking her eyes away from the telescope sight she looked around the room. "Ah-ha, I think this is it." She grabbed a single lever and pulled it down. She smiled as she looked back through the telescope.

The legs on side of the ship were actually large paddle wheels. With the pull of the lever, the legs started rotating quickly and the ship sped on towards the transport ship. Thanks to this they were actually moving a bit faster than the transport.

There was the sound of several cannons booming as Haze's ship was nearly hit. Looking out to the water she could see three average marine vessels, luckily there were no battleships. "This is bad, we were so close too." There was another single canon shot and then a crashing sound. Looking back out to the marine's Haze could see one of the ships had fired on another and caused the masts to collapse and actually sink the ship.

"Haze! Keep on going and save Lord Katsua!" Although she couldn't see him too well from this distance she recognized that voice. It was Takato who had attacked and sunk the other ship. A group of marines charged the pirate with guns and rifles though he used the cannon once more and blew a hole straight down to the hull. Bodys of marines scattered from the explosion and Takato abandoned this ship for the next one. This ship seemed to have some odd flower design on its mast rather than the marine insignia.

Roland stood at the shore watching the battle. "I will not interfere with this battle Hideo. Let's just see how strong your friends are and if your goal is obtainable." As Takato jumped onto the third of the three ships he felt a metal object slam into his gut and he fell to the ground. Procne stood above him with an iron lance in hand. She had hit him with the blunt side instead of the point and the marksman didn't seem to have the strength to stand.

"Seems like you're all out of energy pirate." She picked him up and tossed him to a soldier. Standing on the ship was Charlotte, who was covered head to toe in burns and Rin, who was being supported by another marine to even be able to stand on her feet. "We will not let this night end like this! Karkade, paddle!" The soldiers on board as well as Rin, Giselle, and charlotte all groaned. "Don't give me that attitude; I said get below deck and start paddling! We won't let that pirate out paddle us." Soon enough everyone was down below and paddling away on bikes.

Haze had managed to catch up with the transport and led the ship to smash right into its side. The horns of the bull destroying the hull of the ship and managing to punch through its side. Running along the figurehead she boarded the vessel and took out the few guards down below.

"Haze? Is that you?" Hideo asked as he suddenly rose to his feet. Another guard aimed his gun his way though Hideo managed to duck below and head butt the man in the gut. "Come on Ursa, we're out of here." The other boy simple nodded though stopped and grabbed something from one of the guards before climbing across the figurehead and on to the ship. The other prisoners had realized he stole a key and began to steal from the other unconscious marines.

"Haze, where'd you find this awesome ship!? This really belongs to us now?" The red haired girl nodded happily before tackling Hideo the ground in a hug.

"It's good to see you again captain." Hideo smiled as he struggled to get her off of him.

"I know, it's great to see you too. Where's Takato so we can get out of here?" All three of them looked up to see the Karkade division ship moving across the water with haste. Standing at the head of the ship was Procne with her usual crazed expression.

"This is where it ends!" As their ship managed to get in range she used her Lance as a pole-vault and catapulted her way on to the ship. Haze was prepared to step in and battle the woman with her sword, but Hideo stepped in the way, his shackles removed.

"Thanks for taking them off Ursa, I'll take it from here Haze." As Procne landed on the deck, Hideo tackled her to the other side of the deck. Haze didn't hesitate as she jumped off and on to the marine ship. By this point the soldiers had flooded the deck and the area was filled with the sounds of swords clashing, guns, and explosions.

Ursa stood on the deck of the stolen ship almost as if he were hiding from Procne, hisface was a bright, blushing red. "Ursa, what are you doing?" Hideo questioned as he dodged a jab from the lance.

"I can't go down there and help the red haired girl and I can't fight her either. I ummm….." The boy couldn't say, though quickly scurried through the door and down to the lower levels of the ship. Hideo sighed as he avoided another blow, this one just barely.

"Wonder what his problem is." The point of the lance suddenly grazed into his side and Hideo was sent sprawling away from the angry red head. "Man, you really need to chill every once in a while. Whatever, my crimson bombers should be enough for you." The captain reached into his coat and pulled out nothing but air. "Crap, I forgot they confiscated my bombs." He looked up to Procne with his usual childish smile.

"Die!" She said and stabbed down at him. Hideo rolled to the side and grabbed the shackles that e had previously been wearing.

"Guess these will have to do." He swung them over his head by the chain and swung at the woman though this proved to be ineffective as she grabbed hold of it and gave him a swing and back down to the deck. Suddenly the boat began to shake as steam rose from the bull figurehead. Suddenly it shot forward like a piston and demolished part of Karkade's ship. Hideo smiled as he rose to his feet and charged to push the woman over the railing and into the water. "Good going Ursa!" The boy came back on the deck and looked at the floor as Hideo said this.

"Don't mention it. I know this ship better than anyone, after all, it is the one I created." Haze climbed back over the side of the ship with Takato being supported by her. Ursa suddenly turned away and blushed off to the side.

"I got Takato, let's get out of here," she was spent by this point and fell to the floor.

Still not facing Haze, a blushing red Ursa spoke up, "It's okay, I already turned the paddles back on, and with that last attack I made their ship shouldn't be able to sail." He looked up slightly and was now face to face with Haze. "Gah!" He suddenly scurried away and was now on the other side of this ship again.

"Is that the Ursa from the poster?"

Hideo nodded,"I think he's just a bit shy. He'll adjust eventually, but for now we set sail, with a new member under our flag. Well, our flag that has yet to be created." The marines seemed to have been scattered into the water or sprawled out randomly across the ship from when they had been rammed.

Ursa called to them from his side of the ship, "So what's the name of this crew anyway?"

Hideo seemed to think it over in his head a while. "We are the Crimson Storm Pirates!"

There was silence from the other three crewmembers before haze finally responded by raising her hand. "That name is lame."

Hideo's face faltered slightly as he went and huddled up in a corner of doom and gloom. "It's a cool name I tell you! It's cool!" The rest of the crew laughed and even Takato managed a tiny smirk that no one else seemed to catch sight of as the paddles came to a halt and their ship made its way to their next adventure.

* * *

Finally finished with Rushville. You wouldn't believe how much my ideas for how this arc would go changed from what was actually put into these last 5 or so chapters. Nevertheless, hope everyone enjoyed and I'll see you all next week when I start the next mini-arc!


	12. The Pirate's Life

**Disclaimer: **I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners. I've been doing this for like 10 chapters now though so I think I'll stop with the disclaimers.

Ugh, so sorry everyone for not updating the story in so long. I've been going on trips like every weekend for the past 2 or 3 weeks and I don't have time to update on weekdays. I'll attempt make up for it in about 3 weeks during Spring Break though. :)

Also going to try and do something I saw in other stories that I liked with the titles now.

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 12: The Midnight Shadow Part 1**

**The Pirate's Life

* * *

**

Hideo yawned slightly and rolled out of bed. This was something new to him since becoming a pirate, actually being able to sleep on comfortable mattress with warm sheets protecting his body from the cold air of the ocean. Definitely much better than sleeping on the wooden floors of the last two ships he had been on. To him and probably the rest of the crew it seemed they had been drifting the West Blue for weeks on end though it had only been about eight days or so since they escaped Rushville.

Everyone had managed to adjust to the new ship quite easily and though there were a few arguments on who got what rooms and what beds they all seemed to enjoy it. Though there was a unanimous decision amongst the crewmates to give Hideo the master bedroom at the end of the sleeping quarters of the ship. On the other side of the narrow hallway was the girl's room which Haze had for herself for the moment and in between the two was the boy's room. On each side of the room there was a bed, one for Takato and one for Ursa. Behind this hallway were the bathrooms where the crew could finally enjoy actually being able to take showers. And on the other side of this level of the ship was the kitchen, though the place was rather a mess as no one on board had any real cooking experience.

The day after pulling off their escape the crew decided on a name for the ship and seemed to agree on the name, The Crimson Hammer. It seemed like a strong and powerful name for a ship with the same characteristics. After that everyone pulled together and worked on a jolly roger for the flag. It had been completed within a few days of work and now hung proudly on their primary sail. It was the usual Jolly Roger, though the crossbones were removed in place of two crossing sticks of dynamite and a pair of goggles on the forehead of the skull.

Hideo stepped out of the bathroom and lazily headed up stairs on to the deck where everyone else was already awake.

"Hey, he's finally awake," Haze motioned towards Takato and Ursa who seemed to be looking at a map and discussing things. "Good morning captain Sleepy Head." Haze sat at a small table that was sitting on the deck and seemed to be reading a magazine.

The other turned to see their captain and gave similar greetings.

"Good to see you up, Lord Katsua," Takato said rather formally.

"Oversleep again Cappy?" Ursa added in and even laughed a bit.

Hideo scratched his head and shook his messier than usual gray hair and mumbled something before heading back down to one of the lower levels for some reason or another.

"What's up with him?" Ursa said to no one in general though seemed to direct it more to Takato rather than Haze. Despite this she was still the first to respond.

"Oh, this isn't unusual for him. He usually needs a bit of sugar to get him going in the morning. He said there was some kind of exotic chocolate in the refrigerator that he wanted to eat."

Ursa blushed a bright red and turned away to avoid looking at Haze though didn't speak.

From below them, the rest of the crew could hear several crashes and even an explosion that rocked the deck a bit. They looked to one another (for the most part anyway, Ursa still avoided eye contact with the crew's female member) wondering what could be going on down there. A few moments later there was the sound of rapid and heavy feet slamming into the stairs and heading up to the door that led you onto the deck. The three of them got on guard for what could possibly be waiting for them.

The door swung open and in an instant Hideo could be seen flying out with a kick that slammed Ursa in the gut. Haze's eye's shot open and though Takato was surprised by this as well his expression didn't really seem to change. Hideo stood on top of Ursa, his face seemed to be teeming with anger as there was an abnormally large vein bulging out of his head with every beat of his heart.

He crouched down and pinned the shipwright to the floor before reaching his hand into the boy's mouth for a moment and pulling it out. Ursa managed to regain his composure at this point and quickly his captain off of him. Rising to his feet, it was obvious at this point that he was pretty pissed as well. "What the hell did you do that for? And keep your finger out of my mouth," he spit off to the side with a disgusted look on his face. "Your hands taste like gunpowder."

Hideo rose the hand he managed to get in Ursa's mouth to his face and sniffed it slightly. "I knew it! You ate my exotic chocolate in the fridge didn't you?" He walked closer to URsa and stood above him with his superior height.

Ursa didn't seem to back down though, not even from his captain. It seemed when it came to food he was a different person. "Your exotic chocolate? I brought that with my own money from a trader on Rushville and saved it in the refrigerator. I was going to eat it, but then I was thrown in prison!" He stepped up and now he was face to face with Hideo.

"I put my name on it and claimed it for myself, you can't just go around eating a man's claimed chocolate!"

"It was never yours to begin with!"

With that the two were at it, hair pulling, headlocks, punches, and submissions were abundant as they fought in a rather comical fashion. You'd think that Haze or Takato would take care of this situation though they had grown used to it over the time the crew had been with their new member. Hideo was very sensitive on his sweets and Ursa would always eat them. It led to confrontation, which lead to them fighting. Haze always seemed to pass it off as 'boys will be boys' though Takato usually had another method when this came up.

The two of them continued to fight though Ursa was pushed off of Hideo and looked up to see Takato pointing an arrow at his face. The marksman called over to their captain in a cold and rather grim tone, "Shall I dispose of him, Lord Katsua." Not even a hint of humor in his voice, showing how serious the boy was. Hideo stepped in between the arrow and Ursa and called off Takato.

"It's okay. I think he's learned his lesson." Hideo finished with a rather smug grin on his face. He'd look back behind him to their shipwright and be caught off guard by a ferocious roar. Ursa's shadow expanded and an oversized fist slammed into Hideo's face and sent him sprawling across the deck.

Haze sat in her chair casually; she wore a pair of sunglasses and sipped from a cold glass of tea as she continued reading her magazine. She knew they'd wear themselves out eventually, and within ten minutes or so both of them were lying down on the deck and breathing heavily, sweat drenched over them.

Hideo gave Ursa a rather weak high five and the both of them laughed. "That was a good one today." He managed to get out in between breaths for air.

Haze looked over the two of them rather impassively, "You guys are both idiots." She mentioned before heading off the main deck. Takato had disappeared during the later part of this feud and she figured going to see what he was up to was better than watching the crew's captain randomly fight with a member.

Peeking her head into the boy's room slowly she wasn't surprised when Takato spotted her in an instant. "Geez, Takato, it's like your eyes see everything. May I come in?" The marksman simply nodded in response and she sat on the bed opposite of him.

Takato was currently looking through a book with a lamp over head and by the movements of his eyes he seemed to be blazing through the text.

"Takato, watcha doin'?" She asked him in a rather playful tone. He looked up from the book for a moment and put a pencil in the page he was on before snapping it shut.

"Nothing really, just felt it was time to get bit more reading done on this novel I found on the ship. Reading often usually keeps me mentally fit."

Haze grinned a gleeful grin though and quickly shot from the bed she rested on and to Takato's, she snatched the book and began to run down the hallways. Takato seemed alert for a moment and sprang up after her.

"Don't think I wouldn't notice you writing stuff down in this thing." She called back to him as they raced across the ship. "You have a diary!"

"Fine, it was a blank book I found on the ship, though I didn't lie when I said it was a novel."

Haze stopped a moment and turned to hand it back to him. "You're righting your own novel?"

Taking it from her hands he walked back to the boy's room and promptly shut the door. He emerged again and there was a click as he had locked the door to the room. He looked towards haze with his usual flat line mouth and dull eyes, "Maybe we should head back and check on Lord Katsua."

The boy didn't seem angry, though what could possibly be in that book he was writing? Haze sighed and followed him up the stairs.

Hideo and Ursa could be seen messing around with the helm of the helm of the ship and Takato couldn't help but ask, "Excuse me, Lord Katsua, but you're going the wrong way. We should be heading east, not south."

"Not anymore Takato. After this glutton ate my chocolate it seems we'll be taking a short pit stop for more supplies. Namely, sweets. Did you know there was no strawberry milk in that fridge when we got it?"

Takato sighed heavily as he began to plan a new course on their map. It was so tiring for someone like him who had little actual navigation skills. The world could only wonder how such a dysfunctional group as this would make it.

x-x-x-x

Night had fallen and the crew would be landing on the next island sometime before sunrise. Coming just behind the Crimson Storm Pirate's ship, the Crimson Hammer, was a rather small boat, much like the first one Hideo had owned. It was nearly pitch black and the image displayed on their mast was indiscernible.

On top of the vessel there were several figures busily moving about, back and forth and carrying small conversations. There seemed to be three of them in total and after moving around a while they all enclosed around one area at the center of the boat.

There was a table at the center with a stack of papers piled up, and a rather tall figure with spiky hair leaned back and rested his feet on top. Across from him was another figure, this one just a bit shorter though wearing a large top hat and from what could be seen by the silhouette, a cape. Next to this one was the last of the three, though this one wasn't even a person. It seemed to be a large feline like creature, probably something along the lines of a Jaguar or Cheetah r something. Its eyes shined bright and shifted to and fro, it was one of the only features that cold be seen of it.

The man with the cape began to speak up at this point, "So what's new this time captain?" The figure referred to as the captain picked a few sheets from the stacks of paper and laid them out across the table.

"Read 'em, our next targets."

There were four in total and the first one that caught the top hat wearer was a bounty poster labeled: Takato "Infinite Bolt" Hiroyuki. The nick name was probably a hint as to all the different arrow bolts that he used in battle. The picture was of him during his battle with the marine soldiers as Haze freed Hideo and Ursa from the ship. He was covered in injuries and being attacked from several directions though still had the composure to aim a precise shot. The bounty was 13 million beli.

The next one was a picture of Haze as she clashed weapons with someone. The other figure had been cut out of the picture and all that could be seen was the swordsman clashing blade to blade with an enemy, her hands glowing a bright pink. "Shining Rose" Haze. Her bounty had actually surpassed Takato's as she had been more involved with the escape of the prisoner's from the transport ship than him. She was worth 16 million beli.

After that was Ursa's poster, which was more or less just an update of his previous one. His bounty had been boosted up by 2 million to a total of 11 million and still retained his old nickname of "Bear Cub"

Last, but definitely not least, was the captain of this crew. The picture was of him still in his handcuffs and actually posing a bit as if he could see the camera. If this was intentional or not was unsure though his bounty was the highest of the crew with a whopping 32 million beli. He had been blamed with the escape of every single prisoner on board that ship, engaging in acts of piracy, direct assault upon marine officers, and various other crimes such as damage to the city. Seeing as how he was the captain he'd been held responsible for a majority of the crimes his crew had done. The picture was of him sitting on top of the bull figurehead with a wide grin and looking directly at the camera with his hands thrown up. "Hideo "The Crimson Bomber" Katsua.

The feline on board the ship growled in a somewhat pleased tone and the top hat man gave the beast a pat on the head. "Yep, these guys are worth quite a bunch. It's hard to believe we're right behind them at this very moment."

The animal on the ship then looked back to the group's captain and let out an intimidating roar, though the man didn't seem to flinch in the slightest. He actually rose from his seat and put what appeared to be a gun to its head. "Do you want to die here tonight girl? Don't talk back to me like that." Neither of them backed down for a while, though the man carrying the gun relaxed after a few moments and leaned back once more.

"Regardless of what their bounties are, that does not make them powerful. I'll be the judge of how strong this group is." His featureless face in the darkness suddenly curled up into a sinister look like that of a snake. "Before midnight tomorrow the Crimson Storm Pirates will be no more. The Midnight Shadow never fails."

* * *

Ugh, sorry if this chapter seems kind of rushed and short, the simple fact is that it is. Well, regardless, I managed to get the main point of this chapter across, which is relations between the crew and the things that usually go on while they're on the ship and not involved in anything serious.

Also let me set up this nice little mini arc, so I hope you guys enjoy it. New chapter next week, and like I said earlier, when Spring Break comes around I'll try to do a series of updates to make up for all the ones I missed.

Hope you enjoyed, don't forget to review, and see you next week~


	13. Misfortune

I could go into a million excuses as to why this story hasn't been updated in so long, but that's not my thing. I'd just like to apologize and thank those who are still sticking around to read this thing. If you're mad then you have the right to be as it seems I've been pretty unreliable to my readers.

With that said and done I hope you guys will read and enjoy this one though.

Also, for anyone who may be wondering, I'll still be taking in fan OC's that are sent in.

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 13: The Midnight Shadow Part 2**

**Misfortune

* * *

**

Takato looked over the railings of the ship as they grew closer to the sandy shores of the island. Though it had taken him a while, he eventually managed to find the name and some info on this place. It was known as Myer Island and was rather poor and small though surely held some supplies they could grab. Despite the fact that they originally headed this way for Hideo's candy, it wouldn't hurt to grab some other things while here. It was just an hour or so before dawn and the sun was just starting to peak above the island's horizon. Takato yawned and leaned against the main mast as he continued to watch for enemies or anything of the like that may be approaching them.

His eyelids seemed to barely stay open and fatigue managed to show obviously across his face as he hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. While the rest of the crew got some shut eye he had taken up the watch duty as well as making sure the ship stayed on course. Sometime during the night Ursa was supposed to take over this duty though the marksman didn't bother waking him up. His eyes shut for what Takato thought of as the briefest of moments though was actually about fifteen minutes. When he opened them again he was immediately at work securing the ship at the shore.

Being pirates they of course didn't want to hang around this one place for too long, the goal was to get in, get what they needed (and didn't need) and get out. They would have been woken up immediately though Takato seemed to doze of for a few hours or so. Once he awoke though he managed to get everyone out on deck in minutes.

Hideo rubbed his eyes and stepped out to speak to the crew. "Alright -yawn-, we're finally here people. Go out into town and use the cash we have to buy whatever we may need and your individual cuts to buy personal things. -yawn- Just don't cause a ruckus and be sure to meet back here on the ship by sunset. That gives everyone 6 hours to get things done."

Haze was the first one to ditch the ship and head out to town, followed by Hideo. Ursa began to make a move though Hideo turned around to stop him.

"Ursa, you're on guard duty on the ship. Seeing as how you didn't take up duty last night."

"What? That's not fair!" He began to whine though he seemed to be ignored as everyone else was already becoming mere figures in the distance. He pouted and fell back onto the hard wooden floors. "I bet you're just doing this because I ate your candy!" He yelled, hopefully loud enough for his captain to hear.

Hideo managed to catch a bit of the echo of it and just laughed as the group entered the town from the back. The ship had been left on the far side of the island and would be unseen from the town due to the hills. Looking around they could this place would be pretty simple to navigate and as they made their way inwards everyone seemed to unintentionally split, each having their own objection.

"Now where's the candy store in this place?" Hideo began to murmur as he gnawed on a bit of chocolate he managed out of his secret stash, which was more or less just some random sweets he kept in his pillow case. "Hehe, I needed that nice sugar jump in the morning."

Scuffling his feet about, Hideo scowled and growled as he had been walking around town for nearly an hour and a half without rest just to find that candy place. Once he did set eyes upon it though they began to shine and sparkle with glee as he literally ran and kicked the door open. Women and children alike all stared at the 19 year old boy, bewildered at this. As such Hideo kept a low profile from there; simply grabbing a bag and sometimes scooping even an entire shelf of things down into it. The entire shop had grown eerily quiet for a short moment though livened up again gradually.

As he approached one certain sweet though he was cut off by a tiny hand grabbing the colorful bag and walking away with it. "Hey kid! Come back here!" He gave chase and managed to cut the boy off before he reached the checkout counter. The boy was no older than twelve and scowled as the odd man had gotten in his way.

"Listen to me boy, you don't want that candy, just give it to me why don't ya?"

"Just take another off the shelf, now get out my way." He roared back and even managed to push Hideo down to the ground. He would've continued moving though found a powerful grip choking his ankles. Looking down, sure enough the gray haired man was there too.

"Please kid, just give it here, that's the only one in the shop and I need my sugar high!" The kid placed a kick to his face and now began to scream.

"Help, there's some druggie here saying he want to get a high from me!" All eyes in the shop had turned Hideo's way once again and this time there was more anger and disgust than anything else.

"What is that guy doing to my son? Get off him you freak!" He heard a woman shriek from behind him before a well placed purse swing had sent him sliding across the floor. The pirate rolled to his feet though felt another purse club him in the face followed by a swing to the chest.

"Agh, you hit harder than Ursa!" Hideo yelled as he rolled off to the side, snatched the candy and escaped that mad shop. He cut around the building to lose them and could hear the shopkeeper yelling in the distance about him not paying for the candy as well as causing a ruckus. Not that Hideo cared too much, he took the colorful piece of candy out of the wrapper and stuck the whole thing in his mouth. He chewed for a few moments before there was a painful crunch and he spat out something white and red. "That's…new." He commented before inspecting it a bit and tasting blood in his mouth. He was silent a moment before letting out a yelp. "Ow, that's my damn tooth!"

Haze came around the corner just then and noticed this as well. "Come on captain, we're taking you to a dentist."

"Wait what? A dentist?! No, no, no, I'm okay. It's not a tooth after all. Let's just head back to the ship." He pleaded as she lifted him up and placed Hideo over her shoulders.

"Teehee, so you're afraid of the dentist huh?"

"No, just that it's not, Ouch, needed." He could feel the rest of his teeth begin to scream out in pain as well."

"You're not fooling anyone captain." Haze walked briskly through the town and stopped at a dental place she saw earlier when going through town. There was a line they had to wait through; though Haze made sure Hideo didn't try anything stupid, keeping him in his seat as he began to fidget like some of the children in the building.

"Wait, what are you even doing here? Why aren't you out doing your own thing?"

Haze pouted slightly. "So you didn't notice my hair being trimmed? I gout an inch cut off, doesn't it look much prettier now?"

The captain rolled his eyes. "How the hell am I to notice something so small and trivial as that?" He said in an annoyed tone.

"Trivial!?" In an instant, a well placed punch had collided with Hideo's jaw and he was down on the ground, rolling pain.

"Ahhhh, nowth my theeth really do hurth." He struggled to say as some kid in the room pointed and laughed at him. A nurse had come in to chastise the two pirates and after an hours of sitting in line, arguing, fending off hyperactive children, and wondering why the hell the mother next to him wouldn't stop her teething baby from gnawing on his hand, Hideo was finally up to be brought in the office.

"Don't give the nice man any trouble."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Was all he replied back to Haze before disappearing into an office. Haze fumed slightly though decided to go across the street to check something out she had seen the way here.

The place was a large shop that seemed to get a lot of customers and only sold mirrors. Despite the large exterior the place was stuffed and crowded on the inside with probably hundreds of mirrors of varying sizes and purposes. Mirrors for boats, mirrors for people, mirrors for mirrors even. There were a variety of fun house type mirrors that changed people's sizes and shape as well. As Haze looked around all she could see was herself, probably even a hundred.

A man in a suit and a scar running across his mouth approached her though. "That's a nice weapon you have there. Can you take it out for a moment just to so I can take a look?"

"Hm? Oh, sure." She replied and took out the blade, forgetting how cluttered the shop was and the length of nodachi the blade inevitably swung wide when unsheathed and cut a wire holding up one of the ceiling mirrors. It came crashing down into one of the floors standing mirrors which leaned back and crush several mirrors sitting on the wall.

Needless to say, the shopkeeper was on it in no time and surveyed the area. "That's gonna cost you girl." He said with an obviously pissed tone.

"Fine, fine. I have no issue with that, though am I going to have bad luck for all these mirrors?"

"Don't be stupid, that's just some silly superstitious nonsense. Now pay up."

"Fine, fine, keep your pants on." She swung the sword again to resheathe though the blade slammed into another shelved mirror before being returned to her back. Haze handed the man several large beli notes though he had become pale white and backed away from the swordsman.

"You…y-you just smashed Phosphors Mirror. Forget the cash, just get out of my shop now and take the broken glass with you!"

Haze was confused though complied nonetheless, gathering the stuff up and heading outside. "Wonder what's gotten into him." Just then she saw a woman walk past her petting a black cat, a couple of men holding a ladder passed it over her head and she looked down to find a crack right under her foot. A nervous smile cut across her face. "Just nonsense superstition." Taking a step forward a horseshoe swung down the street and slammed into her knee. It hurt like hell, though Haze picked it up and placed it in her pocket. "Need some protection from this bad luck!" She screamed and scurried off down the street.

Another hour had passed by and Hideo was stepping out of the dentist's office, stumbling over his own feet like some kind of drunk. He still hadn't recovered from the anesthesia and doctors had been trying to find Haze, though she was nowhere in sight. All Hideo did was escape and yell something about dentist stealing his candy as a child. No one really understood much as his talking was rather slurred.

With no one else around he simply stumbled off into town aimlessly, people keeping their distance from him as he seemed to be an obvious drunk.

On the other side of the island most people would find a boy with a bow and some arrows sleeping on top of ne of the hills. Takato had entered the town with the other two though left shortly after and simply fell asleep right there in the grass. The marksman had gotten up every once in a while though for things like dogs, kids playing, and other useless things and because of that didn't get as much sleep as he should have.

Not much could be said on what Ursa did during the day besides eat, sleep, and mess with Hideo's stuff so the captain would find a funny surprise when he got back to the ship. Sunset had been a couple hours ago though and no one had yet to return. "Guess I should head out and make sure everything is alright." He said as he gathered things and left his cabin, though stopped shortly when he heard a sound coming from the girls cabin, something scrambling around in there. "Did they get back when he was getting some shut eye?

He slowly crept towards the door and pushed it open slightly. The light was on, though nobody was in sight. As he stepped in Ursa blushed slightly as he had never been in the girl's room and was honestly a bit nervous. He didn't see anyone though could feel another presence in the room. There was a low growl and Ursa suddenly turned on his heel to face it. A large black figure pounced on him; he managed to recognize it as a panther and couldn't manage to overpower the foe's heavy body on top of him as its paws held his arms in place. He was defenseless and the creature knew it, it attempted to bite at his throat.

"Get the hell off me!" His voice resounded as fur took over his body and he grew to large proportion, now holding the panther above his head. He let out a frightening roar and managed to toss the cat out of the room. The black panther hit the wooden floors of the hallways hard and slid a bit before regaining a standing position up the stairs. Ursa stood there, though now his form was that of a brown grizzly bear, easily managing to stand at 7 and a half feet. His brows furrowed a bit as he shifted back to his usual form and gave chase after the panther that was nowhere in site once he got to the deck.

He assumed the beast managed to escape though it instead jumped up behind him from the stairs, somehow managing to hide there. He rolled back and went into his bear form again, he had planned to kick her from the blindside though the other animal seemed to intelligent for this as it managed to shift its weight a bit and score a deep cutting blow into one of his legs with its claws.

Ursa winced in pain and stepped back. "Get off our ship before I get serious." The panther let out a lighthearted laugh in a rather feminine tone before shifting into a full human woman. The woman had long black hair, silver eyes, and was more than enough to make Ursa blush, something that was somehow obvious even though he was in bear form.

"Seemed the information on you was right," Was all she muttered before shifting into her sleek hybrid transformation and bring the grizzly down in a single punch.

Back on the hills Takato opened his eyes briefly to find the barrel of a gun staring him dead in the face. He managed to roll to his feet and reached around to aim an arrow at the man with spiky brown hair though found his bow to be tossed as the base of the hill. His legs shook as he was still incredibly exhausted though couldn't go to sleep at a time like this.

"Infinite Bolt Takato isn't so great without his arrows is he?" The voice said as he kept the enormous barrel of his pistol looked on the marksman's forehead. The man threw a kick at Takato's chest that under normal circumstances he'd avoid with no issues though felt fatigue to continue to settle in as he fell back and rolled down to the base of the hill, unfortunately, his equipment was thrown down the other side of the hill.

"Now where's Crimson Bomber Hideo? For each time you refuse to answer I shoot of a finger."

Haze sat out in on a park bench, away from trees, the playground, or anything else that could cause her trouble due to the bad luck. Just making it there had been struggle for survival as she dodged falling plant pots and other odd clichés. Somehow even a circus had come into town and she had angered the clowns in one way or another.

She had been calm for a while though grew nervous as a man in a tuxedo and top hat began to approach her. "Um, please stay away, I-"

She found herself cut off as the man began to speak, "Never fear, for I, The Great Johan Faust is here! I have sailed the West Blue and conquered many a pirates, so come now and save yourself the trouble of me putting you out. The chances of you defeating I, The Great Johan Faust, is slim to none. Besides, how is a gentleman such as me supposed to hurt such a pretty lady?" He winked in her direction, sending out a miniature heart that Haze managed to avoid by leaning to the side of the bench.

"Go away, I'd rather not have to ruin that stupid hat and tux that you're wearing, weirdo." Haze said, reaching for her weapon, it was obvious this man knew her identity.

The man's face now scrunched up into a rather angry grimace of sorts. "I was attempting to be nice though now you have insulted something precious to me." He pulled out a magic wand from his back pocket and gave it a swing. Haze had prepared for some sort of attack though found nothing but sunflowers had sprouted from the tip of his wand. From the flowers a bit of green liquid shot outwards and Haze began to jump away from the bench to avoid it though found she was stuck as gum had been where she was sitting. "I understand the bad luck, but why is the gum so strong?" She whimpered as she couldn't move. Deciding to go with next best thing, she mustered her strength and lifted the entire thing from the ground and protected herself from the spray like that.

In moments the bench began to burn away as the liquid seemed to be some kind of corrosive, acid like material.

"I feel sorry for you pirates, having to face the Midnight Shadow so early in your careers. It really is a misfortune."

* * *

Alright, might not be one of my best chapters, but it feels good to get my feet wet again and have an actual update after this story has been sitting still for an entire month. Hope you enjoyed.


	14. To be a Stray

And the long awaited 3rd and final part of the Midnight shadow mini-arc is here :^D

The chapter is pretty long though I didn't really want to make 2 separate ones for this as I want to get moving into the next arc. Plus I wanted to put in that little surprise at the end of the chapter.

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 14: The Midnight Shadow Part 3**

**To be a Stray

* * *

**

The normally warm hearted town of Myer Island was now quickly deserted and empty. Playgrounds where children would once play had now become a battle field and the town area itself seemed like no one had bee in there for years. Every single light except for the few streetlamps they had were out and not a single person could be spotted except for an odd Gray haired teen who seemed to be tripping over his own feet. The doors had been locked up tight and some of the windows now had bars that a person who had lived here for years could've sworn were not there before.

Inside one particular home a family was huddled up in single room and holding each other closely. It was a father, his wife, a single daughter and a boy that had just stepped out from the bed seeming rather confused. "Mommy, why is the town like this?" He said rather loudly despite everyone else trying their hardest to keep things quiet. The mother quickly shushed him and pulled him close to them now.

"It's because they're here, in our peaceful little town. Which means pirates are here too." The father figure responded, using a more gentle tone of voice than his son had just displayed, obviously trying to set example for the boy.

"Then why are we hiding from them instead of the pirates if they're here to fight them off?" The boy had caught the hint by this point and was speaking at almost the same volume as his father had.

"To be honest son, I don't really know who's worse, the pirates or the bounty hunters here to stop them. The Midnight Shadow are some of the most revered hunters in the West Blue, but their ruthless methods and mannerisms are often comparable to the ones they chase after. Those guys usually make sure to get their catch even at the cost of civilian casualties. If it wasn't for the fact that they had cleared up so much pirate violence around West Blue someone would've reported them to the marines by now."

"They must be pretty strong then." The boy said, seemingly missing his father's point altogether.

"Yeah, they are, especially the captain of their group. His name is Dominic Revont, make sure you don't forget that name." The son nodded and their house was quiet once more for a few moments.

Knock, knock. There was the sound at one of their windows, they all shook as they had realized they had forgotten to cover up the windows. Slowly inching to look behind them they saw a boy in a crimson coat with messy gray hair pressing his face against the window.

A stream of drool hung down from his face and went down the surface. "Grah! Why is there a barrier on this glass window? Ey, you, mind opening this?" The boy said with slurred speech as the family just stared before letting out a terrified shriek

x-x-x-x

The man had placed a surprisingly thick boot against Takato's chest and was cutting off some of his air as he could feel his lungs being compressed under this weight. The barrel of a gun that seem too big for its own good was steadily aimed at his head though the guy's finger wasn't on the trigger. Takato blinked a few times and at this point could recognize his attacker.

The gun toting male seemed to notice that Takato had realized he wasn't prepared to shoot him and chuckled to himself a bit. "Don't think that I'm too scared to shoot you or anything, just that when I turn you guys in I want to get the full price. Damn marines like to short change ya if you turn in dead pirates."

His eyes opened wide as his suspicions seemed to be proven correct. In the short time his attacker had spent talking Takato grabbed his leg and gave it a short twist, sending the guy spiraling off him though not to the ground. Springing to his feet he snatched one of the pistols and held it towards the man kind of awkwardly, making the fact that he had never really held a gun quite evident.

"You're Dominic 'Gunslinger' Revont. Back when I worked under Captain Clayton he told the crew to look out for you and your group. Never thought we'd actually meet." Takato said rather dryly, his concern was rather high though his voice gave the appearance of otherwise.

Dominic had his second identical pistol held at Takato's head, leaving them at a standoff. "Seems like my name has become quite famous around these parts then. Just need to hit the Grand Line and be accepted by them and I'll be set huh?" Takato had no idea who he meant by them but kept his finger on the trigger, ready to fire. "Hey, you need help holding that thing kid?" He mocked.

"I prefer using bow and arrow. My home island didn't really have access to weaponry like this and even when offered a gun by Clayton I promptly refused. It takes no skill, soul, or passion to wield these things."

"Oh, guess we'll see about that? Gun-Kata: Impact Blow." Revont ducked low and underneath Takato's arm to avoid possibly being shot before quickly rising and slamming the barrel into the boy's jaw. Takato felt the oversized hunk of steel slam into his chin and he fell backwards. The recoil was more than enough to give him a chance to retrieve his pistol.

"Gun-Kata?" Takato murmured from the ground with the familiar weapons aimed his way once more.

"You say it takes no skill or soul to just wield a pistol which I'd agree with. It's why I developed my own style of fighting with these babies. Gun-Kata." Dominic would've gone into it a bit more but he had found Takato was already out of it. Not unconscious but sleeping. He slammed the pistol into the side of the boy's head and tossed him over his shoulder while heading back to the Crimson Hammer. Even if he didn't know Hideo's exact location his ship was the only way he could possibly escape this island.

The waters near the Crimson Storm Pirates' ship were beginning to rock rather violently as it was sure that a vicious battle was being fought on top of the vessel. Anyone unable to view what was going would've probably thought the two combatants were going at it with intensity and that it was truly a sight to see.

Unfortunately, the only sight that would be seen was a Black Panther human hybrid beating on a large brown bear. Drops of blood were beginning to stain the wooden deck as the excessive amount of blows being dealt didn't seem to lose their power despite the speed they were being dished out. The bear was forced to the railing of the ship before the panther swung her claw at his bloodied face. In an instant though, he had quickly turned into a small boy in a purple top.

Thinking he was in the clear Ursa was surprised when he felt her powerful grip tighten around his neck as she pressed him against the railing. "It'd be so easy to just toss you in the ocean, but then I wouldn't be able to get you out and if you drowned that bastard Revont would just piss me off even more." She said in a rather sharp tone of voice.

Ursa shifted form once again into his full bear and broke from her grasp before rolling to the other side of the deck in his hybrid mode. Between his heavy breaths he managed to utter a simple "Why?" Ursa had clearly seen better days even though through the blood you could still see him blushing nervously.

"I'm a bounty hunter. My name is Raksha Yokune from The Midnight Shadow group. Just call me Raz though." Her voice was rather boring that admittedly reminded Ursa of Takato though she seemed to speak as if the group really meant little to her.

"There's a group?" He seemed to be stepping out of his usual shy zone at this point once Raz continued speaking.

"Yep, right now your friends should be defeated and on their way back to our ship so we can turn them in. Oh, and you too of course. In fact, here comes that asshole Revont right now." He looked over the edge of his ship to see Takato being hung over the guy's shoulder like his new prize. This was more than enough to set him over the edge.

"I won't lose this family like I did the last one. Girl or not…" His form shifted to the hybrid again. "I'm pounding you into dirt. Diamond Claw!" He leaped forward and cut at her chest. A bit of blood sprayed and Raz was pushed back but not off her feet. On the woman's chest there was now a large gash from his claws in the shape of a diamond.

Raz simply continued their conversation as if the blow she had received never really occurred. "So your friends give you power? Take it from me, allies just slow you down and make you weak. The life of a stray is one I dream for. To be free and work for no one."

"Then why don't you?"

"Because people can't be trusted, another reason the stray life is the best one." Just then Takato's body came up and over the railing and just rolled on the deck. Ursa was quick to drop beside his friend and check his pulse to be sure he was still alive.

"No need for that Bear Cub, turning pirates in dead just earns us less cash." This voice was Dominic's as he pulled himself over as well and placed his heavy boot on the boy's body. Ursa growled in a thick bear like expression.

The Gunslinger simply looked over to Raz un-approvingly. "You should've had this taken care of before I got here. What's the hold up damnit!" He swung his arm around and slammed the barrel of his gun right into her stomach causing the panther hybrid to double over in pain.

"What the hell are you doing, she's in your crew you jerk!" Ursa stood up once more after retrieving Takato from under the guy's feet.

"Because my crew is the strongest bounty hunting group in the entire West Blue so I expect every single member to run at top notch efficiency and do what I say. That includes you too you damn panther freak." He pressed the boot to her side causing her to completely fall back though not to the deck. Ursa stood behind her now to support her weight.

It was something that normally seemed out of character for him, being this close to a girl without passing out or something though he seemed different at this point. "I disagree with you on how you want to live your life, but I understand the reason you can't break free as you wish. He stood her up and got into a fighting position.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Dominic asked, both guns aimed at the bear hybrid.

"Do you even know what she hopes to do with her life? Of course you don't because I doubt someone like you would ever pay attention to the needs of someone besides themselves." Ursa replied, at this point Raz getting back on her own feet as well though looking at Ursa rather surprised. "She wants to live a life her own without your rules and treating her like crap. That just goes and gives me another reason to beat the hell out of you."

"You're the type of pirates I hate the most but at the same time love to catch just as much. You're dreamers like those damned Strawhats. Look at where that got them. At least a couple of them turned out right though." Dominic laughed a bit to himself.

"To dream is to believe in a brighter future." Ursa dashed forward and ducked low as a couple of bullets came his way. Getting in close to the bounty hunter he threw a punch at the man's gut that was blocked by his gun. The other one was now being brought down to bash his head.

"Gun-Kata: Impact Blow!" His hand came down but the pistol was gone. It was now sliding across the deck as Raz stood at Dominic's side at this point. She reeled her fist back.

"You're the type of person I hate most." Her fist rocketed outwards as Dominic was brought to the floor, though he managed to quickly recover and get back to his feet with both weapons once more.

Ursa and Raz stood side by side both in hybrid form and ready to take out the threat known Gunslinger Revont.

Haze seemed to be taking care of her bad luck decently for the most part it seemed. Oddly enough though at this point she was covered head to toe in tar and feathers and Faust was just rolling across the floor laughing. For some reason a kid left a bucket of tar on a seesaw that ended up being tipped by the branch of a tree falling off and sending the bucket flying followed by a low flying flock of birds going past her. This didn't even begin to cover the other things she ended up going through tonight.

She had several injuries on her body though only a couple of them were caused by the battle with the bounty hunter. By this point she had already gotten the whole description of his group and the situation in general and was trying to be serious, but it was difficult when your opponent was literally crying in laughter at your appearance.

She growled and swung her weapon down towards him. The magician now straightening up by this point, he rolled to the side and popped up to his feet. "Hohoho, move a bit faster than that to touch me darling." He reached into his coat and tossed Haze some flowers.

She knew not to fall for that as the swordsman instinctively rolled to the side. Once the bouquet hit the floor it exploded. Haze swung her blade in his direction and sent out a pink wave of energy. Faust honestly hadn't been expecting it and fell to the ground. In a moment he heard Haze get to her feet and head his way. A grin now spread on his face.

"Time for the finale!" He tapped his wand once more and in moments a large iron box rose from beneath the girl and closed around her. There were several slot like holes covering it as Faust approached cautiously.

It rattled and rocked a bit as energy blast attempted to break it open. Just give in now Darling, I've captured many a pirates in this thing and I do say myself, it's near indestructible. Hohohoho." He laughed to himself before feeling something wet drawing down his shoulders.

The gray haired boy was gnawing on him like the magician was a meal of some sort and his drool was running down his arm. "Ugh, that dentist told me to stick to soft foods. You're no good. Too hard!"

Haze couldn't really see from the inside of her new cage and the sound of metal clashing on metal was echoing through the entirety of the park.

"Crimon Bomber Hideo Katsua as well? Revont should surely reward me for this catch. We won't be going hungry for months!" He cried in joy as he pushed the boy off of him. Hideo fell to the ground and simply rolled out of the park.

"Wheeeeeeee." He screamed like a child. "That's okay, I left you a present anyway. Look in your tux pocket." Faust raised an eyebrow and did so, pulling out two lit Crimson Bombers. Needless to say, in moments there was an explosion and he was brought to the ground. His precious tux burned and charred, the man was completely unconscious.

Hideo rolled back to his side and took another bite. "Haze, our next crew member needs to be a chef. I think I just burned the meal."

"Hideo, help me get out of here." The box began to rock a bit more as she blasted more energy and cut away at it. By this point the doped up captain was already heading back into town.

"Now that I found you I can finally tell you to get back to the ship. We're leaving." He began to run back to the ship, skipping no less.

Haze began to shake the box wildly. "Hey, wait, captain!" She gave the side a powerful, energy enhanced kick before the entire thing just fell on its side, a scream being heard from inside. "Why won't this stupid box open? I bet it has some idiotic common like open sesame. With that, a lock clicked op and Haze was expelled from it. She decided not to think much into it and rather chased right behind Hideo and back to their ship.

Back on the ship both Ursa and Raz were breathing heavily and bleeding as Revont held his guns their way. He had a few bruises on his body as well though didn't seem to be in as bad of shape as the two of them. Holes had littered the face of the vessel though it didn't seem like nothing that couldn't be fixed in a short bit of time. "You gonna pay for wrecking my ship?" Ursa asked rather lightly.

"This is pathetic. Zoan users are supposed to be especially strong in combat, yet this is all you two manage? I'm glad to have you removed from my group Raksha. Seems you were a waste of space." He looked over the edge of the ship now and could see Haze carrying Hideo as well as Takato's gear as she near the Crimson Hammer. "I guess that idiot Faust was worthless as well. Oh well, there are plenty of people in this sea that would gladly work for me." He jumped off the ship and landed in the sand below. Walking past Haze as he went.

"Hey, stop! Where do you think you're going?" Haze pulled out her blade and swung at him though it was easily blocked and just as easily overpowered as she was thrown to the ground.

"Despite my strength, this many opponents at once is troublesome. I'll just gather that weakling Faust and get out of here." He holstered his guns and got moving. "Next time we meet Crimson Storm Pirates I expect you guys to at least be worth the bounties you've earned. As much as I like the cash, an easy bounty is no fun and I expect more from pirates worth your amounts." In a few moments he had disappeared onto the other side of the hills.

Ursa warped himself back to his human form and turned to see how Raz was doing. He was met by something oddly warm and 'human' touching against his cheek. "Thanks for the help. You were a real…how should I put this, Night in shining armor?" She kissed his check. His entire face now turned a bright red as the boy passed out and fell to the floor.

Once Haze had pulled herself and Hideo up to the ship she found that their captain had gone to sleep as well and Raz had disappeared, leaving her alone on a battle damaged ship full of passed out guys. "I bet you did this just to get me to clean up this mess!" Haze frowned and kicked Hideo who ended up rolling across the deck and hitting both Takato and Ursa, knocking them down into one of the lower levels of the ship. Weary moans could be heard from the three of them.

Revont and Faust were sitting on their small boat, already having departed from Myer Island. Faust rolled over and sighed. "Sorry captain, guess we'll still need another 230 million beli's worth of bounties hunted before they'd even consider us huh?"

"What, you mean for the Santoku no Umi? (Three Sea's Virtues) Probably more than that. I don't want no damned dopey position as a lackey though. I want to be one of the three." Revont replied as he cleaned his guns.

"So is it true that on each of that man's swords carries a different of the three virtues? Valor, Wisdom, and Benevolence?"

"Who knows?"

x-x-x-x

On an Island somewhere in the Grand Line there was a shockwave like that of an explosion being produced as two fighters were now clashing in combat. Neither seemed to hold back a blow. It wasn't until a sword wielder made a final decisive blow that the match had ended. Blood now stained the grass that they had just been fighting on and a large portion of a mountain collapsed and crumbled from the sheer stress it endured from their bout.

The swordsman placed both of his blades back in their sheaths at his side, though oddly enough there was a third one at his hip as well. He sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling out a Den Den.

"Hello sir, have you caught the pirate?" A voice came over from the other end of the snail.

"Yeah. 115 million Beli. Captain Oliver of the Iron Pirates has been caught, His crew too." The man speaking into the Den Den had green hair that seemed to match the green sash or haramaki tied around his waist. He wore black plants as well as shoes and a dark brown button up top. On his left ear were three ear rings. "Oh, and one more thing."

"Yes, Master Roronoa?"

"Mind helping me get out of here when you arrive?"

Laughter of the he had been speaking to at first as well as several other people could be heard as well as someone saying, "Roronoa got lost again!"

"Shutup you idiots and get your asses down here!" He shouted in the thing before hanging it up. This man was indeed the ex first mate of the Strawhat Crew, Roronoa Zoro.

* * *

Man, that chapter took a long time to type. I know it didn't really have any epic fights, but I hope you guys enjoyed and see you around for the next chapter everyone!


	15. A Day to Relax

Yeah, I'm finally back from the dead. I won't bore you guys with excuses though. I'd like to thank all the readers that sent me messages and emails asking what was going on or encouraging me to continue writing; especially the ones that sent me death threats (joking). With all of that said and done, let's get this rolling. I just hope I haven't gotten too rusty.

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 15: An Island Resort Part 1**

**A Day to Relax

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**

"Lord Katsua, you should be staring at the sun like that. It's bad for your eyes."

Takato was standing at the helm of the ship as usual. He seemed to be an expert at multitasking though as the boy easily managed four tasks at once. There was a map in one hand, the steering wheel of the ship held firmly on the other. One eye kept lookout on their surroundings and the other stared observantly at the ship's captain.

The gray haired teen was lying across the ship's deck, fingers intertwined between his head and eyes staring directly into the fierce brightness of the sun hovering just above them. He blinked once before suddenly rolling over and letting his forehead simply drop onto the stiff wooden boards.

"I'm s-sorry." He stammered with a melancholy unfamiliar to the crew.

That was four days ago, the morning directly after their encounter with the Midnight Shadow. It seemed like everyone but Takato had taken that whole experience rather roughly. Hideo had slowly recovered, but he hated seeing the rest of his friends like this.

The gluttonous Ursa was leaning on the railing of the ship's bow looking down at the blue waters below. Haze, who was usually an active and fun loving member of the crew was instead in her room. For the last few days it seemed she had been having horrible and chronic headaches.

A few moments later it seemed Ursa had stumbled away and went back to do something on the ship's interior. Hideo had been engaging in another staring contest with the sun at this point, but hopped up and walked over to his archer. Well, more like into his archer as Hideo's movements were bit uncoordinated for some reason.

"Takato, where are we currently headed?" The suddenness of the question caught the boy off guard for a moment though he responded in his usual flat and dry tone. "We still need a navigator before we can head to the Grand Line, Lord Katsua. So we're currently on course to a popular pirate island, Unza Isle."

Before he even finished the explanation the Crimson Bomber was fumbling around with maps, holding them about an inch away from his face just to read them. Takato sighed. "My lord, maybe you should rest your eyes after all that sun watching?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it in a bit. Right now, we need to change course to this place!" He held out an upside down map to the ship's makeshift navigator at the moment. It read, Toroa Island. Inspecting it for a short moment, Takato finally replied. "Fortunately, this place is pretty close by, probably less than a day's travel. Any particular reason why we're going there, Lord Katsua?"

"Hahaha! You'll see when we get there." He said with a big stupid grin on his face that usually only showed itself when there was some sort of sweets around. "Now, I think I'll be heading to my room for a moment. For some reason everything is bright and colorful out here."

"Lord, you're going the wrong way, the door's behind me." Hideo spun around and fumbled around a bit until he found the knob and stepped in. "I knew that," He called once inside.

It only took about a day, but the crew had finally reached Toroa, it wasn't really difficult to find either as the bright lights and sounds of screams and excitement could easily be heard and seen from a mile away. Despite the cold night breeze blowing in the air, the entire crew was standing at the bow of the ship and looking out at the island with shining eyes and enthusiasm. Well, except Takato, but even his eyes seemed to have a certain gleam to them different from the usual dullness.

"It's every bit as great as I thought it would be!" Hideo yelled, leaning over the rails and nearly falling in before Ursa pulled him up.

"What do you think you're doing?" The shipwright said in an annoyed yet obviously still pleased by what was just a short distance away from them. "The place of dreams, an island paradise!" Hideo called while rolling back to his feet.

"Hideo, this place is so great!" Haze said with a sudden jolt of energy that made him smile. He knew this would get everyone back to their old selves.

Something that Takato found odd and slightly worried about as they docked was the fact they didn't need to hide the ship. It seemed this place was full of partiers with a large portion of them actually being pirates. Four more on the island was nothing new to the people there.

The welcome wagon was quick to arrive on the scene and greet the crew. "Welcome to Toroa, hope you enjoy your stay." A woman dressed in colorful clothing spoke to them, though before she even had a chance to finish, Hideo and Ursa were racing off to the east side of the island.

"Last one to the food courts is a jackass!" Ursa yelled and pushed Hideo in an attempt to slow down his foe. The captain stumbled though quickly recovered and threw a lit Crimson Bomber right in front of the brown haired pirate. Ursa slowly skidded to a stop before tossing the stick of dynamite across the street.

"Hit the deck. Fire in the hole!" People began to wail and run in frenzy out of fear for their lives. He screamed and put his hand over his head. Nothing seemed to happen however, He looked to the Bomber which had only released a puff of smoke.

"Haha, got ya! It was a dud!" Hideo yelled, already creating a huge distance gap between them. "Hey, get back here you damn snake!"

Takato looked around and yawned. "I think I'll get back on the ship to keep watch." He started to walk but in moments his feet seemed to be moving against nothing but air. Actually, he was now being held up about 6 feet in the air.

"Nope, Hideo wants everyone to have fun and enjoy themselves. Now come on, we're heading to the game area!" She was holding Takato above her head with strength that had amazed the welcome woman. "Thank you, we'll be sure to have a good time." In moments she ended up taking off in a hurry just as the other two members of the crew had done.

A few moments after the Crimson Storm Crew ended up taking off, a small dinghy pulled in at the docks. The welcome lady approached the three that stepped off. "Welcome to Toroa, hope you enjoy your stay."

A purple haired man with a cane and piercing cobalt eyes stepped off. He wore a black lab coat with a purple button up collared top. His left eye seemed to be lacking the pupil as well as carrying a thin white scar going down it.

Among him was an odd four armed creature with blue skin and literally glowing yellow eyes; likely a fishman by both the look and horrible sea stench that drifted from him. This one was wearing a long white lab coat that was buttoned tightly at the front; he also wore thick back boots. His hair was an odd spring green with a spiky top that was combed back into a mullet.

Finally, in between the two was another fishman, this one female however. Her skin was white as snow with black stripes. Her hair was long, purple, and a bit of black. The fishwoman wore a leather jacket with spines on the shoulders and "Sentou!" on one of the arms. She seemed to be held up by the other two and on closer inspection the welcome lady could see a thick gash on her side with blood running from the sides.

"Do you need any help?" The purple haired man glared at the woman with those piercing eyes of his. She seemed to space out for a moment before letting out an earsplitting shriek and collapsing to the floor, unconscious.

"The fishman looked over now. "Can we take her along? I'm sure my buddies here would love to _meet_ her. Smekekeke." He laughed wickedly while reaching over with one of his extra arms until stopped by the other man.

"Not right now, friend. We just need to find what we came for and get out." He said with an odd sincerity before the three departed the docks.

A crowd had now gathered in the food court as something seemed to be going on at its center. "Go, go, go, go!" They chanted. At the interior of this circle there were two guys inhaling plate after plate. On the left was Ursa devouring a plate filled with various meals ranging from steak, burgers, ham, and other meat products. On the right was Hideo who was doing the same only with a plate filled to the rim with cakes, pies, chocolates, cookies and other sweets.

"You might've beaten me on the way here, but there's no way you can beat me in an eating contest."

"We'll see about that bear boy. Or should I call you jackass?" Ursa roared suddenly and transformed into his full bear form, eating the plate whole. The crowd burst into applauds. "Hey! No fair. You can't use your devil fruit!"

The captain attempted to speed up though he already felt like he was about to burst by this point. The gray haired teen stared down his last slice of chocolate cake before tumbling out of his seat and hitting the ground releasing a sickening moan. "I can't eat anymore."

The massive grizzly bear now finished another plate of his own and even proceeded to swallow the last slice of cake for Hideo. He released another roar and the crowd's excitement grew higher. Shrinking back to his human form now, Ursa's stomach had swollen to at least 3 times its normal size, to the point he just looked like a newly inflated ball.

"What! There's no way this kid could beat us!" There seemed to be a similar scene going on in the game area, specifically the pool hall. A throng of people had gathered for some sort of big event going down.

Standing at the side of the table was a black haired boy in white robes. Snapping the pool cue forward he sent the billiards ricocheting across the table knocking in several balls all in one go. It seemed his opponent was turning into a nervous wreck, teeth chattering and knees shaking.

Keen eyes focused on nothing but the final billiard, the 8 ball, the boy simply stated. "Eight ball, corner pocket." He said with his usual flat line tone and mouth. Staying true to his path, much like an arrow, the black ball was quickly sunk into its designated spot.

"Nooooo!" His opponents cried as haze quickly snatched up his wallet and stashed it in a sack at her side. The crowd instantly went wild as Takato put away the cue and sighed at how easily flawless his victory was.

"Takato, you're amazing! I don't know how you did it, but those shots were incredible and you managed to sink those things every time. We made a fortune off this!" Haze jumped up and down excitedly. From the crowd a man approached the archer.

"You're such an amazing shooter. How'd you get to be so good?" Takato turned to him and loaded his bow with an arrow, the tip pointed directly at the man's head.

"Would you like to find out just how great of a shot I am?" The man stumbled back and fell to the floor and attempted to scurry away. "Takato, what are you doing?" Haze questioned, standing between the random man and the pirate. Takato looked dumbfounded for once, now putting away the weapon. "What? I was making a joke. Having…fun?"

"We'll have to work on that sense of humor of yours. Anyway, let's go check out some other places." Before he could respond he was already being dragged by the arm by the redhead and her overpowering strength.

Hours had passed since their arrival, and at this point everyone had decided to meet up at the bath house. A more quiet and relaxing spot on the island with its own built in hot springs.

"Cannonball!" Hideo shouted before plunging into the steamy waters. Ursa was right behind him though Takato simply stepped in quietly and slowly adjusted to the heat of the water.

"You okay over there Haze?" Ursa yelled so she could hear him through the barriers dividing the men's and women's halves. He had jumped in the shallow end on purpose due to his devil fruit. The water came up to about his waist, and though he couldn't use his powers and felt a bit weaker, at least he was still able to move. "Yeah, I'm fine." She replied.

Within moments Haze heard Hideo and Ursa causing a commotion again. She slowly sunk down into the water until only her eyes were peaking out just above the surface. _"Why do I have to be the only girl in the crew?" _As much as Haze tried to be like one of the guys, there were still of course limits.

"Mind if I join ya?" An unfamiliar voice questioned, though didn't actually wait for a response. The woman had white skin with black stripes and hair was a mixture of purple and black. With the lack of clothing Haze could see tiny white spines stemming from her body that would normally be covered by clothing. "The name's Julie, nice to meet ya." The fishwoman spoke in a crude manner.

Now rising the rest of her head out from the water, she shook hands with the new face. "I'm Haze. It's a pleasure to meet you as well." On Julie's side there seemed to be a newly stitched up wound.

Back on the guy's side it seemed that Ursa and Hideo were preparing for another competition. "Alright bomb freak, this will be the tie breaker. We both have 12 wins and 12 losses. Whoever holds their breath the longest wins." Hideo nodded.

"You're on." In a moment's noticed they both dived under the water. Anybody that hadn't already gotten out due to "Bear Cub" and "Crimson Bomber's" chaotic nature was surely climbing out of the water now as a rancid smell filled the air.

Climbing in was a purple haired man with cobalt eyes and a four armed fishman with a spiky green mullet. "This is definitely relaxing, right, friend?" The fishman was going circled around the water's edge, using his extra pair of arms to do a backstroke. "Smekekeke."

Takato wasn't really paying attention to the blue one and his freaky laugh though. There was something about the purple haired guy that drew his attention there instead; something oddly familiar that he couldn't quite put his finger on. "What? See something you like, friend?" The guy said in a joking tone. Despite the pitch of his voice though, the creepy piercing eyes of his sent shivers down Takato's spine.

In a few moments Hideo jumped from the water with Ursa on his shoulders. The captain laid him out across the ground outside of the water. "This idiot forgot he can't swim." Hideo stated simply before pressing a foot on the boy's stomach and causing him to spray water like a hose.

"Maybe I should cut him open and make sure we get all the water out. Smekekeke." The fishman laughed again. It seemed like no one, not even the other guy with him could tell if that was a joke or not.

Tired of the foolishness, Takato began to speak up. "You," he pointed at the purple haired individual. "You seem oddly familiar, do I know you?" The man's lips began to curl into a grin though a voice could be heard from the other side of the barrier.

"Yo, you guys over there. Are you friends of the red hair girl here?" It was Julie's voice.

"You mean Haze? Er, yes we are. Why?" Hideo replied back with his own question.

"Haze just passed out in the water." The entirety of the crew froze in place.

* * *

Alright then. Hope you guys enjoyed that new chapter that was months overdue. I wonder if anyone can guess who the three mysterious people are. You should be able to recognize at least one of them. So yeah, before I end this Auther's Note here are a few announcements.

-Since I'll be going away next weekend I'll try to update before next Friday.

-Overtime I'll be updating previous chapters. There won't be much new contect, I just plan to remove some spelling errors, maybe add a few more lines and whatnot. But overall, it'll be nothing new. If you really want to check it out though In future chapter's I'll comment in the A/N saying what I've done.

-I was thinking of possibly doing a separate story that would be a "NWB: The Movie" sort of thing. Like I said though, it's just a thought so don't expect anything for sure until I say I will.

-Slight spoilers for next few chapters, so if you don't want to know then don't read this next one. I'm looking for a doctor character to join the crew in this arc. There are a couple already submitted that I'm considering, though I'll give the chance for a few more people to attempt to get characters in the story. So submit them before the next chapter. I don't really care about the gender or if they have a devil fruit or not. All I'm really looking for is someone with a personality that would fit into the crew in some fun way or another.

Last, but not least. I'd like to thank **Bladecutter25** for submitting Julie.

Well, I think that's it, thanks for reading everyone, hope you enjoyed.


	16. The Starfall Pirates

Sorry this is late guys, went out of town last weekend. This chapter will probably be a bit short, the original plan was to put a few of the events that'll be showing up in the next chapter or two in here as well, though that would be much too long. Enjoy ^^

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 16: An Island Resort Part 2**

**The Starfall Pirates

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**

"What do you mean she passed out in the water?" Hideo called through the wall between the two halves. Not wasting any time, he was already pounding away trying to knock the thing over. On his shoulder was Takato's hand.

"Lord Katsua, we can't cross the wall." The marksman spoke, being the usual voice of reason in the crew. "It's okay," the voice of the female fishman spoke. "I have her; just meet me outside the building."

Once outside the guys had finally gotten a chance to meet the woman that had helped Haze. She was still unconscious though didn't appear to be in any noticeable pain. "Please, tell us what happened." Takato spoke while taking Haze off of Julie's hands and carried the girl on his back.

"I'm sorry, I don't know anything. We were just talking for a bit then she said something about a headache. Next thing I know her head is in the water and she's not moving."

Hideo frowned slightly. "Damnit, we need to find a doctor somewhere on this island. None of us really know how to deal with this." It seemed like a light bulb had suddenly flashed in Julie's mind. "Hey, I know a doctor on this island. He even patched me up. Follow me."

She had already walked on ahead and was waiting for the rest of the crew to follow. The three shot each other looks of uncertainty. "I know we just met her Hideo, but this is the only thing we've gotten so far." Ursa spoke rather meekly. The captain seemed to understand and nodded his head, prompting the crew to follow.

It was a rather quiet trip for the first few minutes; nobody seemed to be in the talking mood, for good reason too. Julie cleared her throat a moment, "So yeah, my name's Julie, you guys?" It seemed she was trying to break a little bit of ice. Ursa was looking away and whistling, his cheeks a bright red. Takato was his usual quiet self.

"I'm Hideo, I can't thank you enough for the help your providing me and my crew here." Julie turned her head and raised an eyebrow, "Oh, you four are all pirates?"

"Yeah, is there something wrong?" Hideo began to worry; maybe she wouldn't help them if she knew they were pirates? "Oh, it's nothing, I just didn't expect such a cutey to actually be a pirate." She blew a kiss over to the still blushing Ursa. Try as he might to dodge the aerial sign of affection, the kiss landed right on target and the brown haired boy hit the ground.

Hideo smacked his palm into his face with one hand and took hold of Ursa's leg with the other, dragging him the rest of the way. "Come on, fainting even when the girl is of another species?" Julie simply grinned.

It hadn't been much longer until they arrived at a small home on the outskirts of town. It didn't look like much, but Julie had assured them the doctor there was pretty good although pretty damn annoying. She knocked a couple of times before pushing the door open.

"Hey, Frog Boy, I-"

BOOM

The fishwoman was quickly cut off by the sound of an explosion that sent them all falling back outside the building. The windows had shattered and smoke was piling out. A figure emerged from the smoke covered in some sort of oil like liquid and soot. "Hahaha, guess I used a bit too much this time. Gero."

Although the rest of the crew was still down, Julie was back on her feet and grinding her teeth. "You dumbass!" A single well aimed punch caused the guy to rocket backwards and back into the home. "You guys, stay right there, I just want to have a few words with him." From outside the sounds of screaming, agony, and furniture being crushed was heard before all was finally silent.

The guy from earlier appeared once again, though this time the crew had a better look at him due to the smoke clearing out a bit. The guy had wavy turquoise hair that managed to extend a little past his shoulders. His face wasn't in too great a condition after Julie had her 'talk' with him. His right eye was swollen and nose was bleeding, though he still seemed to be fine.

He wore red headgear, though it was rather odd in the fact that it was more so just a head band with ear covering as well. Besides that, he also donned a green denim jack with the sleeves rolled up, beneath it a yellow shirt. In Hideo's opinion, the guy was rather funny looking, especially with the three frogs he had riding around on him.

Once inside, the guy had instructed them to place her on a small table while he did a few checkups. "She seems fine for the most part, though you guys mentioned she's been having chronic head aches. Gero. Guess I'll finally be able to use this fellah! Gero!" He ran to the back and returned with a large snail on a cart. "Booyah!"

"This guy will be able to see what's going on inside of your friend here and relay the info back to the monitor. Pretty groovy, huh?"

The room was silent until Takato spoke up a moment. "…Groovy…" Hideo simply nodded. "Yep…groovy…" The sound of a cricket chirping could be heard for a short moment until it was quickly consumed by the green frog on the doctor's shoulder. Seemes like they'd just have to settle with croaking then.

"So anyway, my name is Froggy Duggs, welcome to my humble little home and office. Gero gero." Takato spoke up again. "…Gero gero…" Hideo simply nodded. "Yep…gero gero…"

Froggy frowned and leaned against the wall. "Man, you guys sure are a tough crowd to please." A humming noise could now be heard from the snail as its eyes turned a light blue in color and remained fixated on Haze's head. "I'll go grab some snacks or something. It'll be a while before this thing finishes the scan. Gero gero." With that said, the doctor vanished into another room.

"Lord Katsua, can we really trust this guy? He seems a bit…off." While the two of them talked, it seemed that Julie was still shooting Ursa flirty looks, causing him to hit the floor once again.

Hideo was simply trying to use this time to lighten up a bit. He had hoped for this to be a fun day for them to enjoy, though things didn't seem to always work out as one would want. "Lighten up Takato, he's kind of weird, though it seems he has good intentions."

"Froggy may seem like a quack, though he knows his stuff. He managed to fix me up from this nasty scrape I got in a fight." Julie pulled up a portion of her jack revealing the gash that was bleeding when she first arrived on the island, though now it was stitched up and bandaged. "How'd that happen anyway?"

"Me and my crewmates got into a fight while searching for something. They're doctors, though they didn't have supplies on hand, and as navigator I need to be in top condition." She swung her arms a bit and punched at the air.

"A fighter and a navigator? Oh man, if you weren't a part of another crew then I'd recruit you in a heartbeat." Hideo said jokingly, though Ursa and Takato knew he was surely serious. Julie laughed in a less than enthusiastic tone.

Froggy had come back with a tray full of sandwiches already partly eaten. "Don't blame me, Kiwi got hungry on the way back." Froggy's eyes traced upwards to the green frog on his head.

"It's fine, I wasn't too hungry anyway. You could leave it out though, I'm sure our crew glutton would be more than happy to eat them." Almost as if on cue, Ursa was up and gnawing at a sandwich.

"Froggy, how about you? Would you like to join my crew. I don't want things like to happen so often and not have someone around to fix up my friends. It seemed like for once, the doctor was utterly speechless. Before he got a chance to reply though, Julie was speaking.

"Hideo…," She pulled the sleeve of her coat down a moment and looked at a strange gold bracelet around her wrist. "I…Aagh!" She clutched her wrist and fell to the floor in discernible pain. "Julie, what's wrong?"

"Smekeke, we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves aren't we Julie?" Standing at the door now was the two guys that had been in the springs with them earlier. The fishman had some sort of odd device in his hands, smiling gleefully as he continued to hold down the button.

"Damn it all. Simian and Kurtz….." Julie muttered in between spurts of pain.

Takato stood up and got his bow ready. "I thought I knew you two. Kurtz 'Black Madness' Rosencrantz and Simian 'Plagued Quack' Atropos. Wanted pirates from the Starfall pirate crew." The fishman, now known to be Simian put the device back in his coat and grabbed Julie with a pair of his arms.

"That's _The_ Plagued Quack to you buddy, smekeke." With the fishwoman now easily detained, the two began to depart until Hideo spoke up.

"What the hell are you guys doing to her? I thought you were supposed to be her crewmates!" His fists were clenched so tightly they were beginning to shake. Ursa was already at his side as well by this point.

Kurtz now stepped up, his cobalt eyes piercing through each and every one of the men before him. "Listen here, friends. She has one job and one job only, which is getting us where we need to go. Now, goodbye."

The purple haired man's eye began to glow as the room was completely consumed by darkness. Hideo looked around; he had been completely cut off from the rest of his crew. A dark void that was empty of both sight and sound. Moments later, a foggy figure appeared on the floor beneath him. A reflection of himself.

Although it wasn't visible, the captain could feel his body shiver, being consumed in an unexplained fear. Crack. One formed in the reflection beneath him, followed by another and another until the ground crumbled beneath his weight and he was sent plummeting downwards into the unknown.

* * *

Alright people, hope you enjoyed this chapter. If there's anything I can do to make chapters better for the readers just review and I'll get to it ASAP.

Froggy was submitted to me by good buddy, Munchlax Jr. Anyone who already hasn't should go check out his story, "Beyond the Sea." It's pretty great and even features characters you may have seen here. You should also check out the story "Pirates!" by SeeNoEvil121. Another great read that even inspired me to write New World Bound to begin with.

Last announcement, I start school next week D: I'll have to wait until after everything has started before I give any sure announcements, but updates could possibly slow down.

You know how I said that school thing was the last announcement? Well, I lied. Next week I'll be heading out of town once again, so it's likely there won't be a new chapter. Sorry guys :[

Well, that said, see you next update~


	17. Window to the Past

Good lord, two chapters in one week? This must be a sign of the Apocalypse. So yeah, jokes aside, you can pretty much consider this making up for the lack of chapter last week, the possible lack of chapter next week, or for that period of time I went inactive. Your choice :^D

Also, there is art of both Simian and Kurtz. It was not drawn by me but instead someone from a site I frequent. In fact, Kurtz, Simian, a few of the Karkade characters and other future characters were all created by members of that same site. So as a bonus there's an image of Rin too! Anyway, if you want to finally see what two of the members of the Starfall crew and a member of Karkade looks like then head to my profile and use the link there. You'll also be able to check out my crappy art of the Crimson Storm Crew that I plan to update when I get the chance.

One last thing, you may notice the fact that Ursa gets called Miroku several times in this chapter. Well, that's actually what his first name is though the crew prefers to call him Ursa.

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 17: An Island Resort Part 3**

**Window to the Past

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**

"Woah, what's going on?" Froggy shouted at the men raiding his office, a bit too shocked to even mutter gero at the end. It seemed like whatever had overcome Hideo had managed to affect both Ursa and Takato as well. The three of them simply stood there in a daze for a moment before hitting the ground. All of them had the chills and even the emotionless Takato seemed to be taken over by fear.

Froggy, being a doctor was quick to drop down and check on the men. They still had a steady pulse and showed no signs of sickness; honestly, he was baffled by what could've caused this. Standing from his kneeled position he aimed a steady finger at Kurtz and spoke, "You, what did you do to them?"

The pirate smiled an odd crooked grin and wagged his finger. "Listen here, friend, back down now and you won't have to suffer like them." Froggy now felt a slight chill course through his body. It was like the man in front of him just gave off this discomforting atmosphere wherever he went. Even though Kurtz spoke with a kind tone that didn't change the way he was making Froggy feel.

"Don't fret though, friend. They'll be fine, it'll just be a while before they recover from the effects of my Tero Tero no mi(terror terror fruit). "So it's a devil fruit's ability? I should've known. Gero."

"Come no, they're not worth the time, let's just leave." Julie mumbled while trying to force the two men out of the building. "No, I can't let you leave until you fix them. As a doctor it's against my code to turn my back on people who need me especially when they're lying here in my very own clinic. I'll do everything in my power to get them back in tip top shape! Gero gero!"

The pirates seemed unmoved by this speech. "Smekeke, maybe you should just calm down before things get messy." The fishman reached into his coat and pulled out syringes in two hands and scalpels in the other two. "Before things get 'messy'."

Takato was beginning to rise by this point. "Oh, look friend. Seems this one's will is pretty strong." Not saying a word, the archer readied his bow and loaded an arrow on the spot. "For years I trained to negate such hindering emotions as fear in order to better serve my lord. Before this day I don't even remember the last time I've experienced it."

He fired an arrow at Kurtz which caused the man to jump to the side in order to avoid it. Just what Takato wanted, for the man to get away from Julie before he fired his next bolt. "Gunpowder Bolt." There was an explosion and smoke clouded the room. It wasn't until moments later did Simian leap out from the thick cover and stabbed two needles into Takato's side. "My body feels like it's made of cement." He muttered before hitting the ground, still conscious but seemed to be paralyzed.

Once the smoke had finally cleared the Starfall crew was gone. Froggy was ready to give chase though Takto's voice interrupted. "No, stay here, you have to make sure my lord will be fine. I'm not a doctor and as much as it pains me to say this, I'm useless to him when it comes to things like this, especially in my current state."

"I need to make something to help you out fist though." Froggy responded, already getting to work creating an antidote of some sort. "You guys must be a pretty tight knit crew though if you value your captain's safety over your own. Gero." The frogs on his head and shoulder leaped off and disappeared into another room, coming back moments later with a couple of vials and syringes.

"It's more than that, as his humble servant, it is my life's sworn duty to make sure he's safe and reaches his goals." It was a few more minutes before Froggy had finished his concoction; a vial of pink liquid that had unusual foam forming at the top.

"Here, try some of this groovy stuff. I'm pretty sure it won't explode." Takato paused. "…Groovy…" This latest comment causing the doctor to frown. "Is now really the time to criticize how I talk, Gero!" "…Gero…" by this point Froggy had pretty much just forced the stuff down the guy's throat.

Now looking to Hideo and Ursa he noticed something sitting in the middle of the floor that surely wasn't there before. The boy picked it up and examined the weird object. It seemed to be a glass orb with a compass in the middle being suspended by wire. "That's an eternal pose, a navigation device commonly used in the Grand Line to lead travelers to a specific island."

"Hmm, maybe one of those guys dropped it in the fight?"

Takato nodded. He was starting to get some movement back in his body by this point. Placing it on his work table, Froggy started his examination of Ursa and Hideo. Besides the croaking of frogs, the room pretty much stayed silent. "You're really boring, you know that? Gero." He spoke in an unsatisfied tone.

In Ursa's mind he had just opened his eyes and was looking at a much younger version of himself. The setting was rather familiar to him as well as the events that were soon to take place. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about changing them.

"Ive done it! Haha, Yutaka check this one out." The young Ursa shouted across the shipyard. He was drenched in sweat and covered in varying injuries, though he seemed more than pleased with his creation. Behind him was a small ship though it seemed rather strong and seaworthy.

Another boy, this one taller and obviously much older than Ursa came out and examined it. "I don't even know why you have me do this everytime you finish a ship. It'll just sink the moment it hits water as always." Ursa crossed his arms and pouted, it seemed this wasn't the first time he had heard this.

"Because, you're my big brother. You're supposed to help me get as good as you!" Yutaka didn't respond. "Seems better than the last one, though I've said that every other time." Operating some of the machinery, Yutaka moved the ship out to the nearby coast. Just as predicted once it touched water the wooden mass began to rock and shake before capsizing.

"It's not fair! I can fix ships all the time and they sail good but I can't build my own! It's no fair." The small brown haired boy began to shout and tantrum, causing his older brother to laugh. "It's alright Miroku, like I said; you're getting better at it. Now let's get back home, I'm sure Uncle Shoji is waiting for us."

Ursa climbed on to his older brother's back and the two departed. Once arriving to their home an older man with graying hair stood before them. He seemed to be wearing similar working clothes to what Yutaka and Ursa wore.

"Who told you two to stay out this late at the shipyard?" He landed a harsh blow on the back of Yutaka's head that left a visible lump though as he got ready to give Ursa his own punishment Yutaka took that one as well. "Haha, sorry uncle. Miroku wanted to head back hours ago though I told him to finish his ship. It's my fault."

Shoji eyed the older brother a few moments before grinning. "Hehehe, well, I'm you two have learned your lessons. Now come in, dinner's starting to get cold." The man turned away and headed back inside.

"Yutaka, I was the one that wanted to stay. Why did you lie for me?" Ursa spoke, tears already forming in his eyes for the fact his brother had to suffer for him, even if it was only a little. "It's fine Miroku, no reason for us both to be punished right?" That said he walked inside as well.

Once inside everyone was seated around a large rectangular table. Besides Ursa, Yutaka, and Unlce Shoji there was also the boys' mom, aunt, and grandfather. Despite being the smallest member of the family, Ursa definitely had the biggest stomach. "Thirds please!" The table burst into laughter.

"Already Miroku? My my, you'll definitely grow into a big strong man some day." His mother praised causing the young boy to blush slightly. "I can't help it, mama's cooking is just so delicious."

"Hahaha, flattery will get you nowhere Miroku." His grandfather spoke now. Overall, it seemed to be your average family dinner. Still being forced to watch from the sidelines the present Ursa tried to close his eyes or look away to no avail. He knew the worst had yet to come.

There was a violent banging at the front door and moments later it fell to the floor. Uncle Shoji was quick to rise to his feet and see what was going on with Yutaka right behind him. "You! What the hell are you doing here." This exchange prompted the rest of the family to rise and see what the commotion was.

Standing at the collapsed doorway was a shady man in a coat. At his side was a sword and at the other a pistol. "Come on Yutaka, is this really how you treat your father?" The man spoke in a sickening tone. He moved around the family and walked into the dining room where they had previously been eating. "You know, I really do miss these old family dinners."

"Tarakudo, leave now. You're not welcome here. When we had the divorce I told you I never wanted to see your face again." The mother spoke up now grabbing a knife for the kitchen. Everyone in the room seemed rather tense besides Ursa. Due to his young age at the time his memory of the man was rather foggy though he did recall the fact he was his father. Not that it changed the fact that everyone else in the house told him to stay away from this man.

"I'll leave just as long as Shoji comes with me." The room was dead silent. "And why the hell would I come with you?" Was the man's enraged response. Tarakudo decided to let a flap of paper do the talking for him. On it was a picture of Uncle Shoji with a bounty of 28 million beli. "No matter how much you want to leave the past behind you once the government stamps one of these bounties on your head it's there for life."

Shoji growled and tightened his fist. "I said get out now!" He swung his fist at the man's face, but Tarakudo managed to sway to the side and avoid it.

"Tsk, tsk. Wrong answer. And every time you decide to give me the wrong answer something like this will happen." He pulled out the sword and immediately proceeded to slice the elderly grandfather. Ursa looked away and began to bawl as blood splattered across the walls. The old man fell to the ground, dead.

"Everyone, get to safety in the back! I'll take care of him." Still desperately overcoming the shock of what just happened Ursa's mother, brother, and aunt began to move away from the kitchen, though in a moment's noticed there was another splatter of blood as his aunt fell to the ground. Ursa screamed until Yutaka picked him up and ran to the back of the house with their mother. From the kitchen a lot of crashing and yelling could be heard. Their mother left them in the room and locked the door. "Stay here, I'll take care of this."

"Mommy, don't leave us!" She smiled and gave Ursa a kiss on the forehead. "Don't worry about it. I'll be right back." The brothers sat alone in the dark room. There was more crashing and sounds of struggle until a gunshot rang out. The entire house was silent.

Uncle Shoji came to the room and opened the door. "Uncle Shoji, where's mommy?" The man didn't answer. Although Ursa didn't seem to understand Yutaka did and was fuming with anger. Shoji proceeded to turn on a light in the room and open one of the floorboards, inside was a locked iron chest that he soon opened. "We have to be sure Tarakudo doesn't get a hold of these."

Inside were two devil fruits. To Ursa they appeared to just be weird fruits, though Yutaka recognized them. "I'll show this bastard for coming in here and ruining our family!" Yutaka was quick to gnaw into the fruit and gagged immediately afterwards due to the taste. Ursa simply held his in his hands, too confused to really know what to do.

Moments later Tarakudo kicked in the door to the room. "How many people must die here for you to come with me?" The barrel of his pistol was still smoking as he aimed it at Shoji's forehead. "None, go ahead and take me away."

"Oh, you think I'm taking you alive? Sure I lose some cash, but you're way too much trouble to deal with." He squeezed the trigger and a loud bang was heard. Shoji hit the ground immediately after wards causing Ursa to run off and back towards the kitchen. "Mommy, help us," he screamed, still clutching the fruit in his hands.

"Where do you think you're going?" Tarakudo was prepared to give chase to his youngest son but was blocked off by Yukata. "You sick bastard! I'm going to end you right here and now!" In his sudden burst of rage Yutaka leaped at his father and transformed into a lion. The man hadn't been expecting this and in one clean move Yutaka had managed to get a hold of Tarakudo's arm in his powerful jaws and rip it straight from the body.

Tarakudo screamed in pain and managed to barely avoid a fatal swing at his face by the lion's claws, but they still managed to make contact leaving three cuts going across his face. Deciding to call it quits, he fled the house.

Yutaka was prepared to give chase but stopped at the kitchen where he saw Ursa crying next to the body of their mother. She had been shot and killed. He picked up the crying boy and embraced him in a hug.

Days passed, the marines had informed them that Tarakudo had successfully been captured and would be enjoying some deserved prison time. It was around this same time that Yutaka left the house. "I'll definitely be back Miroku, once I'm strong enough to protect you from horrible people like him. I'd take you, but the places I'm going are much too dangerous for you."

Since that day Ursa had lived alone and continued to work on ship in his uncle's old shipyard. The present day Ursa was still being forced to watch this tragedy. Just as he thought it was over, the events in front of him began to play back from the beginning like a continuous loop of a video. He'd be forced to watch until he woke up.

Froggy sighed. "All I can do is make them as comfortable as possible until they wake up. Gero." Takato maintained his usual flat expression.

"There has to be something you can do, it seems that lord Katsua is suffering the most." Hideo was still sweating as he rolled from position to position in the bed.

* * *

Yep, hope you guys enjoyed this double update week. Maybe if you're lucky you'll get a triple update! The next chapter will be featuring Hideo's past, so it will be somewhat easier to type. I don't think I really have anything else to mention so remember to check out those pictures! See you guys next update!


	18. I Will Rule This World!

Sorry to keep you waiting people, for a labor day I sure have been busy, but oh well. Hope everyone enjoyed their short holiday and is ready for Hideo's background. Several things have been hinted at here and there over the course of the story including involvement with the marine, Roland. So, let's get this rolling.

Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, no new One Piece chapter for another 3 weeks D: I know it will be epic as hell when it comes back, but a month without new chapters is agonizing!

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 18: An Island Resort Part 4**

**I Will Rule This World!

* * *

**

"This is not looking good. Gero." Froggy said in a disheartened tone. He walked over to a shelf and began to mix a few chemicals together before just tossing the vial in the trash can. "Grah! This is so frustrating! I'm a cotor with a patient right in front of him suffering and can't do a thing. Gero gero!"

"Be calm," Takato spoke to the odd doctor with his usual calm tone of voice. Although his eyes were focused on his captain the entire time, he had no trouble holding conversation with Froggy. "I worry for the condition of Lord Katsua, but if pulling through this depends entirely upon his own strength then I believe he can do it." Froggy's face brightened up, even if it was only slightly.

"You guys must really be a tight knit group of pirates," that said, the doctor sat down and took a deep breath. Being panicky like that would serve no good to himself or the three currently unconscious patients in his place.

White faded slowly into another void of black as Hideo was on his knees pounding what he believed to be the ground. His fists were bleeding by this point although it wasn't visible to him and all in his mind. "Damnit! I can't take it anymore!" The crimson Bomber shouted for no one to hear.

He felt like vomiting at this point as his stomach seemed like it was doing backflips. Over the time he had been trapped in his own fears and bad memories Hideo had tried everything to get out, running, shouting, even tossing bombs, but no matter what he did it seemed there was no effect. The ground below him began to shine and became reflective, almost as if it were a mirror. Then it happened again.

"Amazing, they're so beautiful!" An excited young boy with gray hair screamed while dancing around the yard. Indeed, this child was Hideo, not a day older than ten years old and having a blast. Standing above him was a girl with short black hair and a grin probably twice as big as Hideo's despite being almost twice his age.

"Were not done yet, Hiddy!" She said and began to light several more fuses. They all managed to run down with perfect timing and cued three red rockets to fire up into the night sky. Each one reached its peak and exploded into an incredible, crimson red display of light.

His adolescent mind couldn't take it as the boy was all over the place making the sound effects of the firework explosions. "Boom! Kaploosh! Pow!" He hollered. The girl laughed before approaching Hideo and handing him a small bottle rocket.

"There you go Hiddy, give it a go." The boy frowned slightly but took the rocket anyway. "Starting today, I'm finally ten years old; don't call me Hiddy anymore, Kara!" The older girl laughed and watched as the boy let the bottle rocket loose. It went off in a relatively small explosion, but he seemed pleased nonetheless.

"Alright, birthday show is over." Hideo groaned and started to head back into the small home with his head hanging low. "Don't be so glum, Hiddy. Big sis got a few surprises for you inside." It didn't take much more than that for the boy to rush inside looking for his birthday surprise.

It was a bit later that the two of them were sitting at a small table with a birthday cake in the middle. There were ten candles off to the side that had already been blown out by the excited birthday boy and at least half of the large rectangular cake was already gone. "I couldn't eat another bite!" Hideo said, leaning back in his seat with a more than full belly. Next to his plate was a glass of strawberry milk and a chocolate bar.

Kara laughed while doing the same. "Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you eat nothing but sweets on your birthday." One of her hands reaching behind the seat now, she revealed a large red gift box to Hideo. Needless to say, the boy's eyes began to sparkle with an overwhelming joy. Seemed like gifts were more than enough for the boy to forget the fullness of his stomach and jump from his seat.

He ripped the gift wrapping ferociously and tackled his sister to the ground with a hug just by the sight of what was inside. "This year, I can finally do it?" The black haired girl nodded and rose to her feet. "Yep, this year I'll teach you how to make fireworks so you can help me with Hanabi Festival." Hideo picked up the box and started to dash towards his room to start experimenting but his sister stopped.

"There's another gift too, another letter from mom and dad." Hideo set the box down and shook his head. "I know mom and dad are gone, you don't need to keep writing fake letters." Kara seemed surprise at this sudden sense of clarity from the child and set the letter back on the table.

"I just found out recently, but it's okay. I've gotten all the sadness out. Besides, I have big sister and her amazing annual show to look forward to!" Tears began to run down from Kara's eyes as she gave Hideo a hug. "Come on, let's go upstairs. I'll get you started."

Time began to move forward as months passed and Hideo increased his skills by working alongside his sister. It was mid day, but tonight would be the big night of Hanabi Island's annual Hanabi Festival. A party followed by an incredible fireworks show directed all by Kara Katsua for the past 6 years or so. Though, this year there would be one major difference. The show was now directed by both siblings.

For the most part all of their equipment had been set up already, the brother and sister just had to wait on the rest of the festivities to be set up and the time to come for the start of their show. Together, the two of them sat together on a rooftop. It was rather quiet until another person joined them by climbing up through a window.

The male seemed to be about the same age as Kara and familiar to both of the siblings. "Roland," they both said in unison. Hideo's tone was more of anger with Kara's being excited and pleased. Kara was the first to move and gave Roland a hug and kiss on the lips. An act that quickly prompted Hideo to nearly vomit. "That is so gross…"

Roland pouted, "Quiet pipsqueak, the grownups are talking here." Hideo was fuming at this point and before anyone realized it, the boy was already at Roland's side and landed a well aimed kicked to the older teen's leg. "Roland, fight me like we did back when we were kids!" A vein could visibly be seen bulging from Roland's forehead. Although he wasn't as muscular as he is present date and his hair was cut much shorter, he still easily gave off an intimidating look. He cracked his knuckles and got into a fighting position.

"Well, you're still a kid, but I wouldn't mind handling that." It seemed like a war was about to go down on the rooftops until Kara stepped between them, being the voice of reason between a child and an actual child.

Once things had settled down the three of them had been having normal conversation the past few hours. The sun was setting and people had already gathered below them for the party. The fireworks show wouldn't but until it got much darker however, so Kara and Hideo could still relax a bit longer.

"Are you sure you want to go into the marines? I heard it's almost more dangerous now than it has been ever." She asked with obvious concern for the green haired male. Hideo on the other hand seemed like he could care less though Kara had told him to be nicer to Roland. "Yeah, um have fun and stuff," he spoke with little concern, more preoccupied with his finger in his nose.

"Protecting people from those horrible pirates is something I've always wanted to do, just like my father and his father, and even generations before them." Roland relaxed a bit more until he was completely outstretched on the roof top and staring at the sky. "What about you Kara, maybe you could join me?" She blushed but refused the kind offer.

"No, my place is here on this island. Someone has to take care of Hiddy, besides. I'm the director of the Hanabi Festival fireworks show." He frowned slightly; this obviously wasn't the answer he was looking for from her. "I'm sure they can find someone else to do it. Nobody as great as you, but it's just a fireworks show."

"No, it's more than just some show," she spoke strongly, an odd conviction that managed to catch Hideo's attention. "This island isn't too wealthy, and people are forced to suffer or barely get to ends meet. But, every year I put my heart and soul into these fireworks and the people flock to enjoy them. Even if it's only for one night, they all forget their troubles and have a good time."

It was then that Hideo had remembered back to his birthday. When he mentioned that her fireworks helped him to cope with the realization of their parents. Although it seemed silly, maybe there was validity to what she had just said?

"If this has such an impact on one island then just think of what could happen if the rest of the world could enjoy fireworks like this," she stopped a moment," Yeah, I know it's stupid." Roland smiled and took Kara's hand. "I think it's a great idea. One you could strive for without regret. Besides, the marines are too dangerous for someone as lovely as you."

Hideo stood without a word and headed to one of the ladders. "I think I'll leave before puke all over the place." Kara and Roland laughed as the gray haired boy vanished from sight and instead began to enjoy the many festivities of the Hanabi Festival.

A few more hours had passed since they had their conversation on the roof and it was nearly time for the Firework show, but Hideo was nowhere to be found. "Roland, can you stay here and watch my equipment while I look for Hiddy? It's not like him to just be late for something he's waited years to do." The soon to be marine nodded as Kara left the festival.

When she didn't find Hideo back at their home she checked the workshop they usually went to when working on larger displays, namely the ones being used in the show. Just as she thought, the young boy was outside and lighting the fuse to test some fireworks. "Come on Hiddy, we have to go. The people want us to start the show ASAP."

The lit fuse slowly began to dwindle as Hideo spoke," Alright, just a minute. I noticed that the chemicals you used in yours were different from mine and figured I should show people as great a show as you can." At the sound of this Kara raised a curious eyebrow. "Hiddy, what did you use from the workshop?" She asked nervously.

Just then, the fuse ran out but there was no explosion. Hideo sighed, "Oh well, guess I did something wrong." He began to approach the fireworks. "Damnit Hideo, tell me what you used!" The young boy stopped in his tracks, if his sister was yelling and cursing then it must have been serious. "Some of that weird powdery stuff in the black case. Why? What's wrong?"

"Hideo, get away from- BOOM!" Her voice was drowned out by the sudden explosion that knocked siblings off their feet. Kara was just knocked to the ground, but Hideo wasn't so lucky due to his proximity to the explosives. His tiny body was easily flung against the wall of the workshop and knocked unconscious.

"Hideo! Hideo, get up!" All the shouting was to use however, and what was worse was the fact that the workshop had been engulfed in flames. With all the things they had in there, the place could go off in a massive explosion at any minute. Mustering her strength, she sprinted as fast as her legs would carry and grabbed Hideo's body. Just as Kara started to get away from the building however, the second explosion went off; this one much larger than the last.

Having no other options, she wrapped her arms around Hideo with her body acting as a shield and braced for impact.

"Kara, what just happened?" The gray haired boy woke up with hazy vision. He was unsure of what was causing all the flames to subside, but then saw fire fighters quickly getting to work so the flames didn't spread into town. Hideo had several bandages wrapped around his arms and legs and could feel a horrible stinging in his flesh, but none of this mattered right now.

He got away from the medics long enough to find Kara being put on to a stretcher. Her body was definitely in a worse condition than his and covered in burns. "Kara! Kara! Kara, wake up! I'm sorry for hurting you!" Roland showed up moments later, pushing Hideo to the ground.

"You stupid brat! Look what you did to her!" Needless to say, this didn't help Hideo's current state of mind and sent the young boy into a wild fit of tears. "Stop, I'm fine." She said calmly, her voice was hoarse and strained, likely from the smoke of the flames.

Just then, the screeching sound of rockets taking flight could be heard as some of the leftover fireworks in the building were still going off. Kara rolled over and looked to the sky. Just above her the rockets began to explode in beautiful crimson red displays of sparks and light. Despite the unbearable pain she was in, it seemed like the black haired girl just couldn't resist smiling. "Roland, take care of Hiddy, at least until I'm out of the hospital."

The medics carrying the stretcher then began to carry her back into town and towards the hospital. It wasn't until later that night did the two of them learn that Kara died on the way to the hospital. After Roland joined the marines he still followed Kara last request by sending some of his salary to Hideo for living expenses. Since then the boy has lived alone in their old home.

Just as before, the scene faded out again to black and Hideo was forced to stare at nothing but a void of Darkness induced by the Tero Tero no mi and his own regrets. Things were different now though. The Crimson Bomber rose to his feet. He lifted one of his bombs into his hand and threw it into the air above him. The fuse was lit yet it seemed as though it had just vanished into the void. No explosion or anything, it didn't even return to him. For the first time since he arrived, Hideo smiled.

In the recesses of his own mind, Ursa was going through an epiphany moment of his own. "As much as I dislike the past, it has only made me who I am today." A ship appeared in front of him, the crew's vessel, The Crimson Hammer. Sailing high and proud was their Jolly Roger with the crew standing proudly in front of it including himself. But standing alongside them was someone else. Yutaka, his brother.

"My shining light in the darkness. I will sail this great big ocean and find you Yutaka. I will show you the ship I built with my own tow hands and the friends who helped me become the great person that you'll see before you on that day." The dark void was suddenly filled with light as Ursa woke with a start, surprising both Froggy and Takato.

Hideo now lit another handful of Crimson Bombers and tossed them above his head. Though they didn't vanish this time. Instead they went off in an eerily familiar display of crimson light. The light now slowly began to mold into a face, Kara's. "I can never forget what my own ignorance did to those closest to me, but I will make it better. I will rule this world! And when I do, I'll make everyone's troubles disappear with my fireworks! That's my light in the darkness!"

Much the same as Ursa, Hideo's eye shot open as he came back into reality. No one seemed to understand what was going on, though that didn't matter to the captain of the Crimson Storm Pirates. He had only one thing on his mind.

"Where's Julie?"

* * *

Woot, that was a long chapter, but oddly enough took me a short amount of time to type than a lot of others. I don't know, maybe because I've had Hideo's background in my head since his creation and have just been expanding on it since then, though wasn't sure when to bring it in.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed and are ready for the conclusion of this arc next chapter. This arc pretty much being an introduction to the next one and a slew of big events to come in the future of this story.

Also, in case anyone thinks I have forgotten about the movie I surely haven't. I've already come up with a fun plot for it to be based on and an estimated time for its production. Though don't expect it to be anytime soon as I don't plan to release it until after the next arc which I hope to be around 8 or more chapters.

Anyway, that said and done, see you guys next time, thanks for reading and please review.


	19. Haze's Condition

Sorry for missing the update last week guys, I had to do a clothing drive on Saturday to help out a friend of mine. I also ended up having a football game. In other news, can't wait for OP, just two more weeks left.

Also, the new pokemon games finally came out! So, in the reviews go ahead and tell me your favorite of the new 156 or however many there are. Mine would have to be Baffuron, epic buffalo with an afro. If you haven't seen all the new pokemanz then head on over to for a full list of them. Sorry if the chapter is kind of "meh" but I can't afford to not do it today. That said, let's start the show.

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 19: An Island Resort Part 5**

**Haze's Condition

* * *

**

"I'm going after her." The door to Froggy's tiny office swung open, nearly falling off the hinges as Hideo ran through it and off into the night. The skies above were still being illuminated by the fireworks still being displayed.

Takato and Ursa looked outside. They could tell Hideo was running towards the docks where they had left their own ship. There weren't many other places to leave a ship on this island and even though Kurtz and Simian were pirates, just like the Crimson Storm crew, there wasn't much reason for them not to use the main port due to its availability for pirates.

Takato was the first one to give chase after the captain and sped out the door as well. Ursa began to depart though noticed Froggy standing at his desk looking through a couple of papers. "You don't want to be involved anymore?" The shipwright inquired, it seemed like the most obvious choice, but Froggy shook his head no.

"It's not that, just the results from the scan I'm doing on Haze could come any moment." Ursa smiled and started moving. "You're pretty serious about being a doctor, huh?" Froggy opened his mouth to speak, but the boy had already taken off after his nakama. He just had to hope that nothing horrible happened to them while he wasn't around.

The turquoise haired doctor sat down and began to relax for the first time since the Starfall Pirates had arrived, but there was a sudden beeping at the table where Haze was located. He leaped up with haste and began to read over the information.

Hideo glanced over his shoulder and could see his crewmates following steadily behind him. It wasn't like he was trying to leave them behind, but he needed to get moving as fast as possible. He knew they'd manage to catch up anyway. As they got into town though their pace quickly slowed as the large crowd of partiers were getting in the way.

"Damnit, get out of my way!" Hideo shouted to no one in particular. The people didn't seem to pay attention to him no matter how loud he got though. Moments later though, he felt something large and furry beneath him as he was lifted several feet into the air. Before the pirate knew it, he was on the back of a brown bear.

The beast let out a terrifying roar that sent the men and women on Toroa into a panic. Hideo laughed and jumped back to solid ground. "Thanks Ursa, now let's keep moving." Ursa nodded and resumed human form as they sprang forward in another dash to the docks.

With the fewer amount of people they managed to make it rather promptly. Julie was sitting in the small dinghy was Julie, head hung low and downcast. Simian and Kurtz were standing next to the vessel arguing over something, though Hideo didn't waste time seeing what it actually was. It seemed they noticed the crew's arrival before Hideo managed to say anything however.

"Wow, you're both up already? Kurtz began to speak, referring to Ursa and Hideo. He seemed genuinely surprised by this. "You two must have some strong will to be able to recover from that illusion so quickly. Especially on your first time experiencing the Tero Tero."

"You know what we're here for. Julie doesn't deserve this." Simian stepped up as well now, getting all four of his arms ready for a possible fight. Two inside his coat reaching around and the other two outside and at the ready. "Smekeke, do we really need to do this same dance again. I gotta tell you boy, if you're not careful I may end up stepping your toes smekeke."

"My hideous comrade's bad jokes aside, I'm sorry, but we can't allow that. Julie there is rather valuable to our captain. He wouldn't be too pleased if we just gave her –"

"Your captain can go to hell for all I care," Hideo interrupted Kurtz mid-sentence. Kurtz simply smiled a bit and pulled his cane out of the boat. "If we can't settle this like gentleman then I guess we'll have to do it the only way pirates know how to. Eh, friend?" In a moment's notice the crew could feel an uneasy aura about them. It was the man's devil fruit once again.

Hideo looked at his arms to see it shaking. Not as violently as when he had been trapped in the illusion, but the main issue was that he felt oddly weaker. "Lord Katsua, I'll cover you. Grab Julie." Takato's bow was already loaded and ready to fire. Wasting little time, Hideo dashed forward but Kurtz was just as quick, if not even faster. From his coat he threw two syringes towards the bomber's legs.

The glass syringes were soon intercepted by the marksman's arrows. "I got the fishman!" Ursa shifted to his hybrid form and threw a punch to Simian, who managed to catch it with two of his hands. Ursa now swung a haymaker to the fishman's head though the other two arms managed to grab hold of him in a similar matter. "I may look like a …. shrimp! Smekekeke! But don't forget that I'm also a fishman." Ursa rolled his eyes at the annoying pun he was forced to hear and now shifted to his full form. Using the increased weight, he leaned forward and attempted to crush the Plagued Quack under his brutal force.

Skidding to a stop, Hideo saw Julie in the boat alone, she stared at the gold bracelet on her wrist and then up to Hideo. "I'm a member of the Starfall pirates. I can't just l-leave them because you ask me to." Hideo frowned slightly, not pleased by this little façade. Her face seemed convincing but her voice wavered.

"Is it that thing on your wrist?" He spoke, pretty much completely ignoring what had just been said. The pirate began to lean over towards her to have a closer look, though someone called his name from behind him. "Hideo, move!" Ursa shouted. He was on the ground with several syringes sticking out of his body.

Hideo ducked to the side to avoid the thrown syringes, but before he knew it, Simian was behind him and injected them directly into his back. "**Arrivederci Alveoli," the fishman said, likely being the name of the concoction Hideo had just been shot full of. Although he quickly jumped away and didn't feel anything at first Simian just kept on smiling.**

**Cough. The first one being rather small and nothing at all really, though Hideo soon burst into a fit of wild coughing, each one getting more and more hoarse as he felt like his lungs were being put through a shredder. Soon enough the captain was on his knees in a continuing fit of coughs. By this point he was even beginning to hack up blood on the ground. **

**Simian stood above him and used all four arms to toss the teen aside. It seemed Takato had been taken care of as well. "Damnit! Cough. Not (cough) again (cough)! " Hideo spoke in between the heaving, still not being able to get to his feet. Still, he tossed several Crimson Bombers their way. The explosives were poorly aimed due to the continued coughs. **

**The range of the bang was still good enough to catch the two pirates however as they departed. Simian's lab coat was charred and torn to shreds though the doctor never stopped smiling. Actually, due to its current condition Hideo could now see everything he had hidden beneath it. Dozens of syringes, all with different colored liquids as well as several odd guns filled with capsules. **

**"They weren't even taking us seriously yet!" Ursa spoke; now back in his human form. Although Simian didn't mind, Kurtz seemed rather enraged by the destruction of his coat and damage to his black cane. "See friend, I really didn't want it to come to this. Honest." His eye began to shine once more as he brought his hand up and an odd black ooze fell from it and the to the ground.**

**It began to bubble and sprout eyes as a gaping mouth with rows of teeth sprouted as well. It was an abomination that could easily strike fear into the heart of the strongest man. This time even takto began to shake as dark clouds formed above them and lightning shot down. At the eye of the storm was Kurtz. **

**In an instant, everything turned to normal once more with Kurtz standing on the dinghy with Simian as the two rowed away from the port. Hideo began to move but a familiar face stood in his way. It was the doctor, Froggy. "You have to get out of my way!"**

**"No, you have to get back to my office now, gero. It's about Haze." Hideo was ready to shove the odd guy out of his way, but there was a strange grim tone of his voice that made him sure this was serious. Ursa and Takato began to rise as well. It seemed they had purposely given them poisons with short time effects just to get away. **

**He hated to admit it, but they had been bested by the Starfall's doctors again.**

**Once they had gotten back to the small shack Hideo, Takato, and Ursa were seated on the sofa as Froggy began to speak while reading from the report he had gotten. Haze was still unconscious. "There's no easy way for me to say this….but the cause of Haze's pain lately, including her passing out like earlier is due to," He stopped a moment, trying to gather a bit of strength, "Haze is suffering from a brain tumor." **

**The room fell dead silent. No one really knew what to say from there. "What hell is that?" Hideo muttered. It seemed that Takato and Ursa understood as they remained quiet and let the doctor explain. **

**"It's a type of cancer, rather malignant and in Haze's case…fatal." They all glanced to Hideo, who simply stood to his feet and grabbed Froggy by the shirt, pressing him against the wall. "You're joking right? If you are I'll beat your damn face in." **

**Froggy turned his head away; he couldn't really look Hideo in the eye. The captain let him go and looked at the papers he had. One had a bunch of information he couldn't understand, though the X-ray was more than enough to convince him. He could see her brain; it looked fine, though one portion of it was covered by large dark spot.**

**He sat back down and began to cover his face with his hands. "Damnit, I'm such a useless captain." **

**"Lord Katsua…" Takato was at a loss of words. "Doc, there has to be something you can do for her." Ursa said. They were all struck pretty hard by the news. The turquoise haired teen simply shook his head no. "There's no way I can operate on it from the position it's in."**

**"How long?" Hideo barked at him. Not that he was angry with Froggy or anybody else in the room but himself.**

**"I have some medicine that should help prevent the headaches and slow the tumor's progression. But even with this, she has six to ten months at best."**

**Hideo turned in his seat and punched the drywall behind him, putting a small hole into it. "Lord Katsua, please calm yourself. This isn't your fault."**

**"Takato, I haven't been able to do a damn thing since we found Haze. On Rushville I was captured by the marines and had to have you guys save me. And I was practically useless on Myer Island because I was drugged up. While I was being an idiot, you guys were doing all the hard work and in the end suffered. Now that we're on Toroa I thought I could make everything better, but thing keep blowing up in my face. We got our asses handed to us not once, but twice, and now Haze is dying. "**

**"Lord Katsua, I will always be at your side. Better or worst. You brought me out of the darkness I was sinking into under Clayton." Takato stood to his feet and spoke. Ursa followed behind him. "And if not for you I'd be in a marine prison somewhere. Being in this crew is the most fun I've had in years!"**

"Still, I don't see why you stay under such a weak captain as me." There was a bit of rattling from the table as Haze started to sit up.

"Because when with you, we know everything will work out in the end. Somehow, it always will." They all looked to Haze, who was beginning to get on her feet. Froggy was the first to move. "Hello Miss Haze, I was your doctor tonight, Froggy Duggs, gero."

Haze shook his hand and smiled in her usual way. "So Doctor Duggs, you must be pretty good. I feel great." Everyone with the exception of Haze felt a sudden wave of relief as they began to shoot each other looks. Froggy looked to Hideo specifically, who shook his head. "Just a common illness of pirates around this sea. I've given you entire crew necessary antibiotics, so it shouldn't be a problem much more," Froggy stuffed the papers with the real diagnosis into his clothes, "Though I've noticed your weakened immune system so I'll have to ask you to take these regularly. At least once a day, gero."

"Sure thing," she grabbed the pills from Froggy and turned to the crew, "Sorry about this guys, hope I didn't ruin our trip." Hideo put on as best a smile as he could and said, "Of course not."

The next morning the Crimson Storm crew was sitting on their ship looking over the island. It seemed the place was rather dead this time a day, mostly because everyone spent all night having fun. "So what are we waiting for exactly?" Haze asked, they had everything they needed and could've left by now "You'll see."

A few more minutes passed and over the horizon Froggy could been rushing to the ship, with a suitcase in each hand as well as his frogs riding his shoulder and head. Once aboard Hideo nodded to Takato let the boat loose as they began to depart the island.

"This is a pretty groovy boat you guys got here, gero." Haze looked at the guy questionably, "…Groovy…" Everyone on the ship began to laugh but Froggy and Takato. "This isn't fair, why does everyone have to mock how I speak!"

"So, you brought what I asked for?" Hideo inquired, Froggy nodded in response before pulling out two sheets of paper. One was a newspaper article speaking of pirates taking refuge in a small fort on a West Blue island, the other being a map of the entirety of West blue though a specific island circled. Wild Western Town. "Thanks, for all the help you gave us man. Though what's up with all the suitcases?"

"Isn't it obvious, gero? I'd like to join the crew as your doctor. Besides, you have a patient on board I should probably keep an eye on, gero gero."

"Haha, this calls for celebration!"

**Crimson Storm Pirates:**

**Hideo Katsua - **Captain

**Takato Hiroyuki – **Marksman/ (Temporary) Navigator

**Haze – **Swordsman

**Miroku Ursa - **Shipwright

**Froggy Duggs –** Doctor

* * *

Yep, that's the end of the Toroa arc people. Pretty heavy stuff went down as well as gaining a new crew member. If you're wondering about Froggy's back story and what motivates him, we'll see all of that in the next arc, which I intend to be pretty long and have some epicness go down, so don't miss it!

We'll also be seeing more of the Starfall Pirates soon, so if you want any character on that crew then send them in and I'll see what I can do. Also, anyone who was wondering about Simian's "joke" about being a shrimp it's because he's a cleaner shrimp fishman. Not sure if I brought that up or not in previous chapters. That said, I guess I'll be seeing you guys next week, and don't forget to answer my question before in the reviews!


	20. The Wild Wild West

Sorry my absence as of late, though good news is that my competition season is done with! Now, what does that mean to you? Well, now that I have much more free time you can likely expect more updates.

New OP chapters have been pretty great. For anyone who hasn't read the manga to its current point go ahead and jump to the next paragraph. I like their new looks and I'm pretty impressed with what has been shown so far. Zoro's scarred eye is really drawing my attention as I think it may have a deal of significance. Although many people don't care for Franky's new look I think it's pretty cool, he looks like a real machine now. His epic hair disappeared though D: Wait…what's that Franky? Hold your nose for 3 seconds? "Epic hair is back!"

Anyway, that said; let's get on to the chapter. I also have a couple of nice surprises in my ending Author's Notes.

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 20: Wild Western Showdown**

**The Wild Wild West

* * *

**

"I'm sure you guys all know what we're down here for." Hideo sat down on the countertop of the ship's kitchen. In front of him were the sleepy faces of Ursa, Froggy, and the only one who didn't seem to have a bad case of bed-head: Takato.

It wasn't without good reason that the pirates were tired however. It was early morning and the moon still hung above the Crimson Hammer as it pushed through the gentle waters. Despite the less than serious appearance of the crew at the moment, this little meeting would be all business.

Hideo pulled a small suspended compass in a sphere out from his coat and place it next to him on the countertop. With his other hand he reached up and sipped from a glass of strawberry milk. Ursa raised an eyebrow and scanned the kitchen for a short moment before returning his gaze back on their captain. "No wonder you aren't tired, you've been in here eating all the sweets!" The shipwright pointed at an empty pie pan on the stove and the carton of strawberry milk resting in the trash can.

Froggy added, "You know, I thought it was pretty weird that we were having the meeting in the kitchen, gero gero." Hideo couldn't do much but laugh nervously, scratch the back of his head and attempt to change the subject. "That's not what we're here to discuss." Takato approached the Crimson Bomber and placed the map in his hand that they had gotten from Froggy since leaving Toroa.

"Alright, first let's discuss the crew's current plan of action. We left Toroa about 4 days ago and will be reaching Wild Western Town sometime this afternoon. News reports have been pouring in around West Blue about the Starfall pirates being here, though marines in the area have been said to have been beaten by these guys without breaking a sweat. Pretty much the reason they have been able to take over the island and make it a base for the time being."

Shaking the drowsiness from their bodies, the rest of the crew was focused once Hideo started his explanation. "These guys must be some real big shots to have taken over an island," Ursa muttered as he remembered how badly they were beaten back on Toroa. "Yeah, they have the highest bounties in the entirety of West Blue. Their ability is Grand Line level though they still seem to have intentions here in the blue, gero," Froggy also added.

"I don't care. We're going to get in there, get Julie and get out." Hideo still felt rather indebted to the fishwoman for directing them to Froggy and helping when Haze passed out. If he couldn't help one person then there was no way he could reach his goal.

Clearing his throat, the captain continued speaking, "Which brings me to my next topic, Haze." It would seem impossible, but the room got even more silent than it was before. This was a topic that still lingered in the back of everyone's mind, but nobody wanted to actually bring up. Hideo nodded in Froggy's direction.

The doctor pulled out a small clipboard and began his own commentary. "Well, she hasn't really suffered any other headaches or sudden losses of consciousness since that night, but I've been keeping her on the medication I prescribed. It's difficult to tell if it's working or not. I don't really have much more information but that." The room was silent as the only sounds that could be heard were the water outside.

"Alright, as a crew I want everyone to watch out for her. If anything odd comes up report it to Froggy or myself. I hope everyone has been preparing in the 4 days since we left Toroa. Get to bed and be prepared for a big day." Hideo concluded strongly and dismissed the men from the kitchen.

Once everyone had left, he exhaled deeply and slumped on the countertop. It was more difficult than he thought being such a serious captain. Rolling on his side, he got back to the floor and peeked into the refrigerator. Shortly afterward he felt a light tapping on his shoulder.

The gray haired teen smiled nervously as he turned around and came face to face with Ursa and Froggy. "Guys, it's not what it looks like." Ursa shifted into his hybrid form and hefted the captain over his shoulder. "Come on, you have a big day tomorrow. You'll be up all night on that sugar rush."

The captain began to kick and pull his way from the zoan user's grip like a spoiled child, but to no avail. "Late night snacks are bad for you anyway, gero gero." Froggy joked in a sort of 'matter of fact' tone.

That afternoon, the crew was back to their usual antics. Before anyone knew it they were already docked on the far side of the island. Despite the fact the island had become rather lawless since the Starfall pirates had taken it over Takato decided to play it safe and leave The Crimson Hammer in a hidden location. He suddenly disappeared below deck.

A bit later the crew emerged from their respective rooms and met up on deck, everyone sporting new outfits. Froggy was now wearing a long sleeve, green top with a bright yellow vest above it, making it pretty similar to his previous outfit. The most noticeable changes being the removal of his red headgear and the addition of black bandages tied around his right leg with a crudely done crimson red X across the front. Around his waist and hanging from his left were multiple straps and holders. His three frogs then took their respective positions with one on his head, and one on each shoulder

Ursa on the other hand now had a sleeveless white top on with flame patterns along the sides similar to his bag. As he joined the group meeting on the deck, the shipwright pulled out two black gloves, each of them having a similarly drawn, crimson red X on the top.

Haze's clothing now consisted of a long sleeve pink top with a blue denim jacket above it. Her blue shorts were now also replaced with a white skirt and white sandals on her feet. Of course, strapped to her back was her nodachi though the handle now had a red X going across it. Next was Takato, the marksman had retained the flowing white robe with crossing red dragons, though on his waist was a black sash with a crimson red X. His blue hakama was also replaced with loose fitting, blue pants. Tied to his back was still his faithful bow and quiver of arrows.

Last to join the meeting was the crew's captain, Hideo. The teen had decided to embrace their new location and was wearing A crimson red, denim coat over his black shirt. His blue jeans had a comfortable fit and stopped just short of the spurred cowboy boots. On his head was a black cowboy hat with the crimson red X on the front of it to match the rest of the crew.

"Haha, these new outfits are so cool," Haze called excitedly once everyone was present. "Hideo, where'd you get the cowboy stuff from?" The Crimson Bomber scratched his chin for a moment, trying to come up with a reasonable answer, but he didn't really have one. "Just found it on the ship a while back and figured now was a good time."

Froggy added in, "Well, regardless of where they came from, those duds are pretty far out, gero." The green frog on his head croaked in agreement while the blue one on his left shoulder just snoozed. It seemed the red frog on his right shoulder had vanished however.

Takato couldn't seem to resist, and muttered, "…Far out…" Froggy made a flat line expression that showed his annoyance as Hideo and Ursa on the other hand began cracking up. There was a shriek from where haze was standing as the girl jumped backwards a bit.

"Froggy, I think I found your pet." The red frog was indeed sitting on the ground beneath Haze and staring upwards with a smile of glee. The doctor facepalmed, "There you are mango, what have I told you about that?" He began stepping towards the oddly colored creature though stumbled a bit when he attempted to grab him and got a sight Haze was less than pleased with.

An easily visible vein pooped from her forehead as energy coursed through the female's legs. "You little freak!" She screamed before kicking him in the side and sending the crew's doctor skidding over the edge of the ship and in the water below. Hideo and Ursa couldn't take it anymore and were on the floor rolling with laughter.

After everyone else had gotten off the ship they dragged the boy out of the water and started making their way into town. Froggy held his side and groaned with pain. "My luck with women is always horrible, gero gero." Haze still seemed to be fuming a bit so Ursa changed the subject at this point.

"Hey, Froggy, can you tell us about those pets of yours?" The brown haired teen said in between bites of the bag of chips he was gnawing on. Froggy raised an eyebrow, it was true, since his joining of the crew he had never introduced them to their 'mini members'.

He first pointed a finger at his head, "This green guy is Kiwi. He's pretty loyal and can eat a bit." Ursa nodded and lifted a finger to his mouth and accidentally bit into it. He glanced to his side to see Kiwi nibbling on one of his chips. He eyed the amphibian and gave it a look that said, "I'm keeping my eyes on you."

"The blue guy on my left shoulder is Plum. As you can tell, he sleeps a lot." Indeed, the blue frog had done nothing but sleep since their meeting, even when Froggy fell in the water. "And I'm sure you all know the red guy, Mango. He has a bad habit of looking up women's skirts." Even as they spoke it seemed like the frog had nothing on its mind but the crew's single female member.

"We're here." Takato spoke as they passed over a hill and could see the town below them. It was definitely what one would expect when they heard its name. Anyone who had seen an old fashioned western movie could feel a similar vibe radiating from this town. Hideo wiped the sweat on his sleeve, "Thank you, I don't know how cowboys walk around in the stupid boots, my toes are killing me. And whoever made these denim coats didn't take into consideration today's average chocolate lover." He pulled out a melted bar of chocolate and tossed it to his side.

As the crew stepped into town there was an explosion of flames from a nearby tavern that sent everyone to the ground from the force. People ran out of the building screaming and trying to escape the flames. All Hideo could really say at the moment: "Wasn't me!"

* * *

Alright, I wish I could do something better for my first chapter in a while, but by this point you guys know the first chapter is usually just setup for future events. You can trust me when I say that this arc will definitely deliver. If all goes according to plan this will also be the longest one so far, so just stay tuned and enjoy the ride.

I also hope you guys enjoyed the new outfits; I was trying to base it a bit on how the Strawhats often change their outfits when starting a new arc. If anyone who has submitted a character doesn't like the clothing changes and would like a change, just go ahead and pm me. As for the crimson X's, that's pretty much for show, I thought it would be cool if they all wore some sort of crew symbol.

Now, for the announcements, first one being that movie I mentioned a few chapters ago. I've decided that the movie will be after this current arc has concluded. I already have the plot and everything planned so you can look forward to that

And, the last announcement for this long Author's Note, the announcement of my new story in the works! With the release of Black and White and some reading of the epic Pokemon Adventure/Special manga I've decided to write my own Pokemon story. I'm unsure on when I'll actually have it up, but like this story I'll be taking OC's. More information will be revealed whenever I actually submit it to the site. So, if you're interested be no the look out for it.

All of that said, hope you guys had fun, seeya next week.


	21. For The Children!

Meant to have this up over the weekend, but I did a bit more planning for the arc and then finished up the Pokemon story I mentioned last week. So yeah, as usual I'm late. That aside, hope you guys enjoy.

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 20: Wild Western Showdown**

**For The Children!

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**

"Seriously guys, I didn't blow anything up…this time."

Ignoring their captain's idiotic remark, the crew quickly got on the move. As the smoke began to clear, several men on horseback began to stride out of the burning building. Their leader was a middle aged man in an all black cowboy outfit, a pistol at his side and a large brown sack tied to the back of his horse.

In fact, it seemed that all of the men with him seemed to be dressed in a similar fashion and were carrying large bags. Takato's eyes darted about the group, catching every little detail about them. "Kekeke, that was a great run. Where to next?" One of the men screamed excitedly while hugging the bag.

The leader of the group lit a cigar and placed it in his mouth before blowing several smoke rings into the air. "Anywhere we want men! This entire island is ours for the taking." The men all shouted in excitement and began to move out, however the leader did catch something out of the corner of his eyes. He led his horse away from their original path and approached a young girl hiding behind a barrel.

It wasn't the child that interested him however; the man's eyes were instead fixated on the shiny object tied around her neck, a pearl necklace. "Sir Collin?" One of the men addressed their leader as he raised a finger to his lips telling them to shush. Position his horse behind her hiding spot, he glanced down at the young blue haired girl in a white dress from atop his horse.

"Well, hey there little lady. That jewelry you have around your neck is mighty fine." He said with obviously fake compassion. The child wasn't buying it in the least as she continued to cower in the man's horrifying presence. "How about you just hand it over nice and easy like?"

The child turned to the man and shouted, "No! Never!" Before tossing a rock at his face.

Needless to say, Collin wasn't pleased with this in the least. "Now listen here you little brat." He swung an arm out and attempted to grab her by the hair, but due to the height difference the child easily ducked away and began to flee. "They always have to make things difficult." The man groaned while aiming his shot with his pistol, as he prepared to fire however an arrow whizzed through the air and sent the firearm flying from his hands.

"Good shot, Takato."

"Thank you, Lord Katsua."

Collin began to growl as he looked to the direction of this annoying interruption. From what he could see it was nothing but a group of teens, though the arrow had definitely come from the black haired one in robes. "Hm, they got some mighty fine stuff over there. I'm sure that bow and arrow set would sell nicely, as well as that sword over there."

Takato and Haze tightened the grips on their weapons as they were both sure of what was coming. "I don't care how much blood they spill, don't let these bastards live down attacking Captain Collin!" As he gave this command the other men quickly rushed forward on top of their horses.

Hideo glanced to Takato's direction who quickly responded. "There are about 11 of them including their captain. All of them are carrying guns and a few have bowie knives." Hideo nodded in response and began to walk away. "Where are you going, Lord Katsua?"

The captain raised an eyebrow at this and shrugged. "Well, I figured I'd let you guys handle this. I want to take care of that captain." As he said this, one of the men on horseback had rushed forward and attempted a swing towards Hideo's head, but his blade was quickly halted in place as the sound of steel clashing with steel rung through the area. Haze looked up to the surprised man and forced him backwards with a quick swing of the large sword.

Takato, true to his master's word began unleashing arrows on the pirates one by one and they were quickly dropping like flies as the marksman didn't even break a sweat. "You guys aren't saving any for me!" Ursa yelled as he put a bag of donuts back in his bag and jumped forward, morphing into his hybrid form while doing so.

"Bear Claw!" The zoan user growled in a beastly tone as his claws slashed into several men at once. By this point, only a few still remained and they rushed at who they figured to be the weakest of the group, Froggy. "This brat hasn't tried anything yet, he must be frozen with fear!"

The crew's doctor tapped the red frog on his shoulder on the head while holding out two vials. Noting the situation, the amphibian quickly spit out globs of black oil into each as he quickly closed each of them and tossed them into the air. Pulling the umbrella strapped to his back off he began, "Abura Ball…" He then slammed the umbrella into both of the vials and sent them flying at the men, a shell like covering shattering once the umbrella made contact.

The next shell shattered once the vials hit each pirate and exploded into oil. "Gama Fire!" A lit match was tossed on to both of the men causing the oil to suddenly burst into flames and sending the men into a painful frenzy along the ground.

With the lackeys taken care of, the crew looked over to see what had happened to Hideo. Standing on one side of the street was the gray haired sweets lover, on the other side was Captain Collin. This was an old school western shootout if the crew had ever seen one.

"Go Hideo!" Haze screamed from the sidelines as the Crimson Bomber kept his hands at his sides, Collin was doing the same.

"Er, what's he doing? As far out as this whole situation is, I hope he realizes he doesn't actually have a gun while that Collin guy still has a backup pistol." Froggy noted to the rest of the crew.

Ursa shrugged and continued gnawing away at a bag of chips. "Knowing our captain he either knows what he's doing…or… has no idea what he's doing." This didn't serve in lightening the mood as the tension continued to rise and a lone tumbleweed rolled by.

"DRAW!" Both of them shouted in unison as Hideo swung at his hip and only pulled out an unlit stick of dynamite. "Oh yeah, forgot that I don't use guns." He commented rather absentmindedly and jumped to the side taking cover behind a pillar to avoid being shot. "Regardless, this should be more than enough for you. Crimson Bomber!"

From behind the pillar, several crimson red explosives were unleashed that sent Collin rocketing backwards and through the wall of a nearby building. "Guess I win?" The Crimson Bomber noted as he regrouped with the rest of the crew. Some of the lesser pirates had gotten back up by this point with the men who were still knocked out on the back of their horses.

Collin was slowly getting back to his feet as well as he emerged from the rubble, bleeding and barely standing. "Sir, we have to get out of here." The captain glared at the man fiercely. "No damnit! I'm not done here!"

"Sir, I don't think you understand. I didn't really notice until the gray haired guy said the name of those bombs." He pulled out four bounty poster and held them to Collin's face. The pirate captain's face suddenly flushed with white.

"Wait, these are those pirates that caused that commotion on Toroa and released all those prisoners?" The other men all nodded rather gravely. "Move out!" He commanded with sudden urgency, causing the men to flee on horseback towards the other side of town.

"Man, I always wanted to do that. Who would've thought I could try it out as soon as we got into town." Hideo said while taking his cowboy hat off and wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Get to do what, gero?" Froggy asked.

"An wild west shootout. I had to improvise a bit, but it was pretty cool in that East Clintwood movie I saw." He said rather excitedly. The captain then pulled out a chocolate bar and put it in his mouth wondering what they should do now.

"I got you now fiendish pirates!" Hideo turned around to see where this was coming from but was quickly met with a metal skillet slamming into his face and sending him to the ground, unconscious.

"Ugh, what hit me?" He said as he began to wake up. The captain wasn't quite sure where he was, but it seemed to be a home of some sort and he was lying on a bed.

"My dad did….I'm sorry." He glanced to his side and saw the blue haired girl they had saw in town earlier. She wore the same blue pearl necklace and white dress and everything. Rolling out of bed in a rather dizzy manner, the child lead him to the kitchen where his crew was sitting down and enjoying tea with the man who had hit him.

"Something's wrong with this picture." Hideo commented rather flatly. He sat down next to everyone else as they began to explain.

"Well, you've been out for about half an hour, but the whole thing was nothing more than a misunderstanding." Haze began, but stopped as the older male began to speak. He had gray, balding hair and seemed to be in his forties or so with a gray beard and glasses on.

"Allow me to apologize, my little Alana here said some pirates in town had threatened her and my heart just began to burn with anger. How could anyone attack the children of this land! Don't those hooligans know that children are the future of this world!" The father shouted while leaping on to the table. The crew could do little more than sweat drop at his overdramatic antics.

"Anyway, I rushed into town and found you guys standing around and looking suspicious right where she told me she had been attacked. 'm sure you know the rest from there." His head suddenly began to hang down low as he looked away from the group "Please forgive me! I was only doing what I thought was best for the children! As the savior of children like my precious Alana, you must surely understand!" The man's eyes soon became waterfalls of tears as he fell to his knees and latched on to Hideo's ankles.

It didn't seem possible, but the captain just began to sweat drop even more at this point. "Er, sure. You're forgiven. You just have to let go of me." With that said, the man leaped back to his feet and bowed respectfully to the Crimson Bomber.

"So what bring you young ones here anyway?" The tension in the room suddenly became thick as Ursa was the first to speak up. "We're looking for the Starfall Pirates. Heard they were stationed here."

The father soon looked to his side where Alana had been moments ago, but had now disappeared. There was the sound of a door on the far side of house slamming shut. Haze raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Is there something wrong?"

The man remained silent for a bit and sat back down. "Yeah, those devils have been on our island for about a month or so, Even in that time though, this place has gone to hell in a hand basket. They gathered up local pirates and drove the marines out and have been using the old City Hall as a base since then. Gradually the town grew more and more dangerous as lawless bandits and pirates took the opportunities that were presented."

Froggy nodded and responded, "So what's wrong with Alana, gero?" The man looked down and began to wipe tears from his eyes. "It's hard for me to say this, but as a father, I failed one of my children! Her older brother, the one who gave her the pearl necklace she cherishes so much has stooped so low as to join those fiends!"

Meanwhile, in a grand building on the far side of town that looked somewhat like a courthouse there were men jumping about and thrashing the object inside. Numerous pirate flags hung about the walls as varying individuals simply had a good time in anyway that could drinking, partying, and general debauchery.

However, in a back room of the building, four individuals were sitting around a table in a dimly lit room. It was rather silent besides the quiet cackling of a creature in a white lab coat. Sitting to the right of him was another man in with purple hair and wearing a much darker lab coat. To the left of the creature in white was a female. She had long blonde hair and seemed to be wearing an eyepatch, though her other facial features were obscured in the darkness.

The door to the room suddenly swung open and closed just as quickly. The purple haired man spoke once the last guy had arrived and sat in the final seat at the table. This guy had the oddest appearance of them all. His hair was jet black on one side while also being snow white on the other. His eyes followed in suit with his clothing with his left eye having all white pupils and his right being all black. Lastly was his clothing, which consisted of a long sleeve top and pants, both being split into black and white with a long black scarf tied around his neck.

"I really wish they'd keep it down out there." The purple haired individual spoke up while the mismatched man began passing out playing cards to each of them. "Calm down Kurtz, let them have their fun out there, we'll have ours in here."

"Smekekeke, they're some rowdy ones alright, think we have enough?" The creature in the white lab coat cackled while glaring at his cards. The last guy simply nodded as the female quickly aimed a gun the fishman's way.

"Damnit Simian, if I've told you once I've told you a million times. No using your extra arms to cheat, nya."

"Smekeke! Guess you caught me as usual" As he said this the man had just finished passing out cards.

"Well, Van. What do you have in mind, cappy?" The teen, now identified as Van and captain of the Starfall pirates glanced over his playing and simply grinned in a horrifying fashion.

* * *

Well, hope you guys enjoyed that. I think this chapter ended up coming out better than I first planned it to. Anyway, you know the drill, read, review, and stick around for the next update!

Don't forget to check out my new Pokemon story as well, "The Distorted Trinity"! I also updated my profile page slightly, though it's nothing major, so look at that too if you want. Later guys, thanks for reading.


	22. The Agreement

I'm back, time for chapter 22~ Halloween was pretty fun (maybe too fun) Hope you guys enjoyed it.

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 22: Wild Western Showdown**

**The Agreement  


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**

"Mut fould ake em do fat?" Ursa spoke, a mouthful of chips distorting his speech. The father raised an eyebrow, not really understanding what he asked him.

"He said, what would make him do that?" Hide responded nonchalantly causing everyone else to stare at him blankly. "What? He sounds a lot like when I talk with a bunch of cake in my mouth."

Nodding, the father began speaking, "He was such a good boy to, very nice to his sister, model citizen, did, his chores, made good grades…" "Ahem," Takato interrupted, hoping the man would catch what he was trying to say.

"Oh, sorry, I get carried away sometimes. Anyway, when the pirates started causing trouble around here he just up and left home to join them. Needless to say, Alana and I were heartbroken and lost at a reason why he'd do such a thing."

"Don't worry we'll talk to him when we confront those Starfall Pirates!" Haze responded, causing Hideo to start choking on the chocolate in his mouth, falling to the ground and grasping for breath. Takato was rather quick on his feet however and caught his captain in the Heimlich maneuver. "Lord Katsua, are you okay."

Hideo glanced over in Haze's direction, "Hey, I'm the captain I think I should be the one making important decisions like that." Haze grinned figuring that Hideo would do something like this.

"So, what do you propose we do then captain?"

Hideo groaned knowing he had just made himself look like an idiot. "I won't forget this," the captain whispered to Haze before speaking to the distressed father once more. "We already have some business to take care of with those Starfall pirates. What's getting on more person? We'll help out." At the sound of this the man burst into tears of joy and fell at the captain feet.

"Thank you, thank you so much. I would be forever indebted you."

"Er, alright, just let go of me." The gray haired teen sweat dropped drying to shake away to grown man latched on to his ankles. Froggy tapped him on the shoulders by this point, "So Captain, what now, gero?"

Hideo thought it over a bit. "We'll rest here for half an hour before moving out to the City Hall. Everyone be ready by then." As the crew agreed and split their separate ways, a small pair of eyes peered out at them from the door down the hallway, tiny hands curled around a string of pearls.

"Looks like I win again." A teen with black and white hair said, pulling all the chips on a table towards his end. "Let's see, so far Kurtz owes me 60 million beli, Simian owes me 450 million beli, and the lovely Rena owes me 122 million beli." Van commented, he was taking notes on a small notepad.

Kurtz and Simian simply shrugged and the blond woman with the eye patch that was now known as Rena growled loudly. "Smekeke, looks like you're making her angry again, Cappy."

Van leaned in towards the blond and puckered his lips. "Well you, know I may be able to deduct some of that debt if you give me some lovin'. What do you say, Lovely Rena?" This last action was met with a boot to the face that sent both Van and their gambling table crashing to the ground. The captain held a bleeding nose saying, "Damn, you wore the steel heeled boots today?"

"I told you not to call me that, and there's no way I'm paying for these damn card games." She yelled angry while storming out of the room and back into the partying going on outside in the main foyer.

"I'm loving you more and more everyday, Lovely Rena~" He called after her just before a familiar face managed to crawl his way into the room. He had blood running down his face and his clothes seemed to be torn and charred. It was none other than Collin, the man Hideo had encountered earlier that day.

"Hmph, what happened to you there, friend?" Kurtz asked out of courtesy, though his voice showed his obvious lack of interest. The beaten pirate dragged his way until he got to Van's feet and began to speak. "Me and my crew were in town just now, and got attacked by those new pirates. And even worst, my crew said they saw them heading here now."

Van didn't seem to care much for what Collin was saying until he brought up the pirates. "What new pirates?"

"That crew that freed all of those prisoners back in Rushville, The Crimson Storm Pirates. There were about five of them."

"SMEKEKEKEKE!" Simian howled in a fit of laughter, banging all four of his fists against the walls. "I'm sorry, but it's just too funny. Those little shrimps actually came here and challenged us, and you lost to them? Maybe you're body would be better put to use as a donation to science?" The fishman's lips twisted into a deranged smile that caused Collin to shudder uncontrollably before foaming at the mouth and passing out.

"Hm, that seems to always happen when you bring that up. Doesn't it, friend?" Kurtz asked as Simian cackled a bit more until Van interrupted them.

"What's going on here you two?" That said, the pair of doctors began to explain what happened back on Toroa with the pirates they fought and Julie. As their story progressed closer and closer to the end Van's expression seemed to get more and more pleased. Exiting the gambling room now he climbed the stairs and stood at a balcony above the foyer area and the partying pirates.

Slowly the pirates settled down and listened to the black and white, mismatched pirate. "Now then, you may not have been under my wing for long, but by now I'm sure you all understand how I work. I live life the same I make my bets, all or nothing. Now, is the time you all prove your worth to me. According to sources there are 5 pirates heading this way as we speak. Get your asses out there and bring them to me. Rewards await you men."

That was enough to get the criminals riled up as they stormed out of the City Hall and began to stampede down the streets and towards 5 figures slowly walking towards their base.

"Hm, what are you planning, friend?" Kurtz asked nonchalantly. Besides Van, Simian, Kurtz, and Rena, there were only three other individuals still in the building. One was a fishwoman wearing a leather jacket and had black and white skin. On her wrist was a golden bracelet. The fishwoman simply stared at a wall with a blank expression.

Leaning against the wall far to the right was a tan skinned male wearing a sleeveless black top and had black hair reaching just at his ears. Strapped to his black pants were several small and navy blue pouches. He stood there silently, eyes fixated on Van before looking away.

Lastly was a muscular male with dirty brown hair. He wears a forest green over coat with a white undershirt, blue jeans, and black boots. Due to his unshaven and somewhat tough appearance he seemed rather rugged and dangerous. He could be seen downing a bottle of booze until it emptied and he simply smashed it in his hands.

Van eyed them over suspiciously before suddenly smiling and disappearing into the back rooms again. "If those pirates are truly deserving of their new bounties then they should be able to handle all of those weak pirates I just sent out there. This could end up being fun though."

"Guess this must be the welcome party!" Ursa shouted while in his hybrid form. He was holding a single pirate by his arm and swung him around as a human bludgeon, knocking out several more attackers around him.

Despite the vast differences in numbers between the opposing sides. Hideo, Haze, and Ursa managed to wipe out large numbers of attackers at once with their larger scale attacks. As most of the forces had been wiped out, many of the pirates found it safer to just retreat instead of meeting a similar fate. That done, most of the pirates had cleared out.

Takato however seemed to be holding an individual hostage. An arrow aimed at the male's forehead. "Lord Katsua, I've found him…"

Hideo approached and looked the guy up and down and nodded. "Yep, this is him, Allen." Their captive was a teen with spiky blue hair and wearing beat up clothes.

_**Flashback**_

"_Alright pops, we're leaving." Hideo called to Alana's father as the crew began to head out the door. He smiled and got up from his seat to see the pirate crew off._

"_Wait, before you go. I need to tell you something. My son's name is Allen. He has blue hair much like my beloved Alana's. He's pretty tall for his age and kind of skinny. You can't miss him._

"_We'll be sure to look out for him, gero."_

"_Oh, one more thing, if you get the chance to talk to him. Tell him I said, I'm sorry." The man said gravely before dragging himself back into his home." As the crew began to walk away from the home a set of eyes were staring out at them from the window of the abode they had just left._

_**Flashback end**_

Hideo simply looked down on him disapprovingly until telling Takato to put his weapons away. "Ugh, I know he wants me to deliver that message, but there's no way I can do this. If anyone should be saying sorry it's you." The captain scratched his head trying to think of how to handle this.

Haze seemed to takeover shortly afterwards however with the questioning of the teen. "We've met your family now tell us how you could leave behind such a caring home to join people like the Starfall Pirates?" Allen smirked and got back to his feet. Takato raised his bow and arrow but Hideo commanded him to lower his weapons again.

Allen snickered and finally spoke, "That's right, down, boy." He taunted to Takato who didn't seem phased in the bit. "You certainly have this lap dog well trained, captain."

"Can we really be sure this is the guy we're looking for, Hideo?" Ursa questioned, growing a bit fed up already by Allen's comments. By this point the blue haired teen had begun to run towards the city hall building along with the rest of the straggling pirates.

"I can't say for sure, but if it was then that would explain my disgust of being around that guy," Hideo said coldly before spinning around to face the rest of the crew. "Alright, almost there, let's get going." His voice was suddenly full of enthusiasm as the crew moved forward once again.

Upon reaching the huge doors to enter the building Haze and Takato stepped forward. "Allow us," they spoke simultaneously, both raising a foot up in the air before suddenly kicking the doors open. As their entrance cleared the crew stepped into the foyer area to see the pirates they had previously been fighting waiting on them in the foyer like room.

Although the Crimson Storm Pirates were caught off guard by this, Hideo's eyes were focused more intently on who he saw on the balcony above them.

"Julie!" He shouted to the fishwoman who simply looked away, dismissing the pirate crew altogether. Alongside her were two doctors that were all too familiar to the crew. Although Haze hadn't encountered them on Toroa the crew had informed them of their appearances before landing in Wild Western Town. The only unfamiliar faces to the crew was the guy in the rather plain black clothing with tan skin, the rugged man punching a wall for no apparent reason, a female with long blonde hair and an eye patch, and a teen who looked like he had fallen into some black and white paint buckets.

"Alright, you know what we're here for. Just give us Julie and we'll leave. You also need to take that damn bracelet off of her!" At the sound of this the entire room full of pirates exploded into laughter around the crew until they were commanded into silence by one man, Van.

"You obviously don't know me. I am Blanc A. Van, captain of the Starfall Pirates. The man with the highest bounty in all of the West Blue."He smirked and leaned over the balcony to await the opposing captain's response.

"You seem to confuse me with someone who cares." Hideo said matterof factly while juggling a single Crimson Bomber in the palm of his hand. "You can just free her or we can take her from you by force."

"Hahaha, I like that. You're just like me, no gray area about you. There's always a black and a white, a right and a wrong choice, a good and a bad. No in between." At the sound of being compared to him Hideo's face contorted into a look of disgust as Van continued to speak. "Unfortunately I can't just give her away like that. See I won this pretty girl in a bet a while back."

"That's disgusting, gero!" Froggy spoke up which caused the Simian to cackle a bit.

"Though, seeing as I'm the gambling type of guy I'll give you an offer." Hideo wasn't sure what Van meant, but motioned for the guy to continue his explanation.

"I'm more of the gambling type of guy, if there's no risk involved then the whole thing is just no fun. Know what I mean? So I propose a Davy Back Fight, 3 coin game." The captain held three playing chips he had taken in his earlier card game with other crew members.

"Lord Katsua. Don't do it, the Davy Back Fight is a pirate game where the opposing sides bet their flag and even their own crew members against each other. This is likely a trap."

"Never, there's no way I'd us my friends as bargaining chips. We'll come to a different compromise." Van frowned at Hideo's response.

"Noble as that may be, I won't be accepting any other options. Like I said, there's no in between. Now, you can choose this or I'll just have the entirety of my crew attack you now. It seems like you guys are pretty banged up from that brawl outside anyway."

Hideo remained silent; he was unsure, but resolute on not betting his crew. "We'll take your challenge and win." The crimson Bomber looked to his side to see that everyone else except Takato had stepped forward. Ursa turned his way. "We haven't been working this hard since Toroa to let it all go to waste. We'll win these games and get Julie."

Hideo seemed to still be in doubt if they should go with through with this, but in the end nodded and joined the rest of his crew. "Fine, we accept the challenge." Van smiled again and tossed a pistol down to Hideo while holding one his other hand. "Just aim it in the air and fire and we can let the games begin."

Both captains aimed their pistols into the air and pulled the triggers.

BANG!

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Yep, that's right, doing a Davy Back Fight in this arc. I thought now would be a good time and I've been planning this for a while. Stay tuned however because there's a lot more to this arc than what meets the eye!

I also had a Halloween short planned to do in this chapter when I originally hoped to release it on Halloween. If you still want to see it then just tell me and I'll type it up for the next chapter. That said, review, keep the OCs coming, and hope to see you next week.


	23. The First Game: Capture the Flag!

Just a side comment, I have now updated the DA link on my profile page to a buddy of mine who's the actual artist for characters such as Simian, Kurtz, Rin, and even Van. So check it out (after you review this chapter of course =D) as well as some of his other great works of art.

And let's get this DBF started~

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 23: Wild Western Showdown**

**The First Game: Capture the Flag!

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**

"Alright, so here's the roster."

Hideo was speaking to the rest of the Crimson Storm Pirates as they were huddled in a circle. In between the time they agreed to the Davy Back Fight and its actual start was an hour and a half. This would allow them some chance to rest and plan, it would also give the Starfall pirates a chance to setup whatever they needed for the games. Unfortunately it seemed that the issuers of the challenge were allowed to decide on the games, putting them at a disadvantage right from the start. Using this time, they decided to have their meeting on their own ship.

"I have no idea what the first two matches will be, but Van has told me the last will be the Captain's Brawl between us. Even though we don't know much on the games the rules still say we have to decide on players for each round." Everyone nodded in understanding while Hideo unrolled a sheet of paper in front of them. Their participants for the first round were Froggy and Ursa.

Everyone except for Hideo seemed shocked at who would be representing the Starfall Pirates for first round. He had already seen the names and displayed his shock to Van himself who didn't really care. Their players would be Kurtz and Julie. "That's pretty underhanded," Ursa said, "putting us up against her in the first round.

"I said the same, but there's nothing we can do about it." Next Hideo pointed to the names for round 2 which had Haze and Takato against Simian, Rena and someone by the name of Kujo. And of course, the final round was Hideo and Van fighting it out for the victor of the Davy Back Fight.

"So captain, any strategies for us, gero?" Froggy asked. Hideo began to shake his head but soon remembered something. "Actually, I do. It's something I've been working on for a while." Ursa and Froggy both stared at each other with blank expressions. It seemed neither of them knew what Hideo was referring to. The gray haired soon pulled out two pairs of Crimson Bombers tied to each other and gave one to both of them. "Um, Hideo, what are these supposed to be?" Ursa asked, somewhat afraid just to hold the dynamite sticks in his hands.

"My newest inventions that will surely allow you to win: Bomb-chaku! They're like nunchaku but with bombs instead so they explode when you hit something with them. Pretty clever right?" Hideo was grinning from ear to ear, but everyone else on the ship was dead silent. All at once, both Ursa and Haze delivered a punch to their captain's face and sent him to the ground.

"A good way to get me killed!" Ursa growled, "You realize the explosion would catch me as well, right?"

Froggy gingerly put the 'weapon' down next to his captain while Takato was checking his pulse. "Haha, a great idea, captain. Very far out~ But maybe it's not your most well thought out one, gero?

"Lord Katsua, stay with me. He's bleeding heavily." Takato said in a plain tone that contradicted his worried actions. Hideo stood back up and look at the thick red stains on his jacket. "C'mon guy, now you ruined my cherry pie slice." Hideo frowned while everyone else simply laughed a bit.

The pleasant atmosphere was soon broken however from the sound of a familiar voice. Hideo removed his coat and walked over to a small snail sitting on the railings of the deck. It was a Baby Den Den Mushi, it's face twisted into a crooked smile and imitating the voice of Van. "I guess it's time," Hideo said, picking up the snail and answering with, "Hello?"

"Oh good, you finally picked up, hahaha. Well, then I guess it's time to begin our first game." In the background the sound of cheering could be heard from the other pirates with him. "Anyway, the first match will be capture the flag. The rules are simple, each side will leave a miniature version of their flag out. Whichever team can steal it and get back to their own base will be the winners. Normally outside interruption is allowed, but that's not really my style so that rule will be removed. Well, that's it, may the games begin. Hahaha." There was a click from the snail, signaling that the call had ended.

Ursa and Froggy prepared to leave. Hideo was holding a small black bandana in his hands with their Jolly Roger on it before tying it to the steering wheel of the ship. "You can do it guys! Show those Starfall Pirates how it's done!" Haze cheered excitedly as Ursa jumped down from the side of the ship and began to leave but stopped when he saw Froggy hold his position.

"What's the deal? We have to get moving." Froggy shook his head and glanced at their version of the flag.

"No, this is a team match, gero. I'll stay back here to guard our own Flag just incase someone manages to sneak past us and get here. Besides, your offensive skills are much more far out than mine."

"…far out…." Takato said flatly which got him a death glare from Froggy. Ursa grinned and nodded before departing the ship and heading back to the City Hall building.

Sometime had passed since his leaving and Ursa was passing through the town much like they had done upon first arriving and dealing with Collin and his men. The streets were practically empty due to the townspeople not wanting to deal with the increased pirate activity on this particular day.

Running through the town he kept his eyes looking over the immediate area for something such as a surprise attack. Oddly enough however, one never came. Reaching the City Hall building he found its doors wide open and simply strolled inside. "I don't like this," Ursa said worriedly. The pirates were all staring at him as he grabbed hold of their own flag and departed. "Good luck~" Van sang as Ursa ran back to his own base with the flag.

"This is way too odd. I just hope that Froggy is okay though."

As the shipwright was passing through city however, this time there seemed to be a major difference; a man was walking down the road with a newspaper in hand. It seemed the sound of Ursa's heavy footsteps had been enough to catch his attention as he putit away, now revealing his face. "Kurtz!" The pirate roared. The purple haired doctor could

"Why, hello there, friend. I don't believe we've talked since our encounter on Toroa. I've been meaning to ask how did you enjoy your first taste of the Tero Tero no mi." The doctor spoke in a nonchalant fashion, almost as if the two them were old friends trying to catch up. Ursa by this point was fed up however.

"This is no time for small talk, now get out of my way or I'll make you move." Kurtz wasn't quite sure what he meant until noticing his side's flag in the boy's hand. "Ah yeah, I was supposed to keep watch and see who came through here to get our flag. Sorry, I haven't picked up a newspaper in a while, friend. I always enjoy seeing what's going on in our world nowadays."

Ursa had already started moving again but Kurtz was faster than he had expected and moved in his way, wagging his finger much as a parent would to a disobedient child. "Might want to take a last look at that flag you're holding."

The shipwright had intended to ignore this statement but soon head the growling of a fierce beast. Looking around frantically he saw nothing in the near area, at least not until looking at his hand. The flag had mutated into some disturbing beast that was now baring its fangs in his direction. "I'm not an idiot, it's just an illusion."

He began to walk away once more but the mutated flag soon grew into an entire body in the form of some kind of six legged wolf with rows and rows of teeth. "These stupid illusion will not confuse me!" Before he could even manage another step however the beast lunged and cut a deep gash into the boy's side with its claws. Ursa fell to a knee and gripped the new wound. The red stain on his hand and clothing pretty much confirmed to him that this was a reality. "Impossible…"

Kurtz laughed, his false eye gleaming in the fierce sunlight. "What is and isn't possible is just someone's perception of the world based on past experiences, logic and reasoning. The only problem with your reasoning however is that you don't realize the power of my devil fruit. All caught in it are trapped in my world, you play by my rules, this is Kurtz's World!"

Ursa growled in a feral like manner as the wolf leaped at him again. His body instantly shifted into his full bear form and managed to catch the monster mid lunge. "X Claw!" The bear growled ferociously while repeatedly slicing at the monster with both claws leaving cuts and gashes all over its body in X shapes. The zoan user finished this by shifting into his hybrid form and grabbing the creature before slamming it into the ground. There was a low whimpering from it before it dissolved and became a flag again.

Ursa picked it up and put it back in his pocket while turning to Kurtz once again. "I've been ready to fight your crew again since Toroa. So I'll just smash through every illusion you have until you're beaten!"

"Hm, seems you've gotten a little better at handling illusions since you have experienced the fruit before. Guess I'll have to dig deeper into your fears and find something that'll make you piss your pants. Isn't that fright, friend?"

Ursa nodded as the shadows from several nearby buildings moved next to Kurtz and twisted into the form of a human body. Ursa's eyes went wide with shock as his body began to shiver. "N-no…"

Froggy leaned against the ship's mast, waiting for any possible intruders looking for their flag. Although Froggy knew his plan was a safety option, it definitely had its disadvantages that made him worry for Ursa's safety, things such as Ursa having to face both of them alone. The ship was relatively quiet with the rest of the crew sitting out at the front of the ship.

Soon, wet footsteps could be heard slapping against the wood of the deck, causing Froggy to turned around and catch sight of Julie, her body soaked in water from head to toe. "Pretty groovy idea there, using the ocean for faster transportation as well as sneaking up on me and getting on the ship, gero." Julie hung her head down and groaned.

"I was hoping you both would have left so I wouldn't have to fight any of you." Julie said in a rather downcast fashion while putting her fist up to get into a fighting stance. Froggy stepped back.

"No! We don't have to fight, we shouldn't have to, gero gero." It seemed the fishwoman hadn't listened however as she rushed forward and threw a series of jabs towards Froggy's face. The doctor didn't have much choice but to move away and avoid these blows.

"Amagasa Shield!" He clicked open his umbrella strapped to his back allotting it to be an effective shield, or atleast until his opponent did a sweep at his feet, forcing the doctor to hit the ground with a heavy thud. By this point Hideo, Haze, and Takato had moved back on to the deck and were forced to watch from the sidelines.

"Julie, you don't have to do this. The whole reason we're here is to win your freedom from such horrible people." Haze called, but the fishwoman seemed to ignore her as well. She was now reaching down to grab the fallen froggy, but he managed to roll away and open a capsule with a strange blue liquid in it. "Plum, Kori Ball!" The blue frog seemed to catch on easily and spat a glob of water into the capsule.

Froggy then shook it violently before throwing it at Julie's feet. It burst open and released a thin mist, but more importantly it created a layer of ice that froze her feet to the floor. He got back on his feet and stood outside of arms reach of the fighter. "I won't fight you head on. I'll just leave you like this until we win the first round. Seeing as you're here, I'm sure Ursa can handle Kurtz without my aid."

A single tear ran down from each of Julie's eyes. "This crew is far scarier than you guys can imagine." The ice at her feet began to crack, prompting Froggy to command each of his frogs into action.

"Kiwi, Mango, Plum! Gama Binding!" Each frog jumped off of his body and landed next to Julie. By extending their tongues the amphibians managed to grab both of Julie's legs and a single arm.

"Thank you for all of your efforts, but I have to finish this." Breaking free from all constraints and flinging the frogs off to the side Juri charged again. A well aimed punch to the gut caused Froggy to double over in pain. This was followed up by a kick to the chin the sent him skyward, it was only a matter of time until gravity took effect and caused him to plummet back to the floor, hitting the deck with a thud that made everyone else on board including Julie to cringe.

The doctor got back on his feet though and spat a bit of blood to the side, this fight wasn't over yet.

Standing in front of Ursa was the man he despised the most but still seemed to hold solid fear of. It was his very own father, Tarakudo. The mere sight of this horrible man was enough to cause memories of his childhood to come flooding back. "I didn't expect to be seeing him again so soon, even if it is just an illusion like last time. Seems you're running out of cheap tricks though. I've beaten this illusion before and I'll do it again."

"We'll see, friend." The Tarakudo clone drew his sword and rushed forward, swinging at Ursa's chest.

"I'll kill you, boy! You and your brother for what you did to my arm!" Ursa was finding it difficult to keep up with all of the attacks from the illusionary copy of his father. Gashes from the blade had slowly started to appear on his body as all he could do was say on the defensive from the wild swings. The shipwright had even gone so far as to shift back to his normal forming order to be a smaller target, but that hadn't been very effective either.

"Guess you were wrong, friend. Defending against my illusions is all about willpower, the less you have the sooner they will incapacitate you or even kill you. If you truly are above this fear then defeating this man should be no problem. I used a particularly powerful one against you back on Toroa, actually about the same strength as this one." He now started to clap. "This one is about the same strength as well, so the fact that you're still standing shows noteworthy improvement in your ability."

"I'm not fighting this battle for your damn praise!" A sudden rage had overcome Ursa. His body shifted into it full bear form and as Tarakudo cut a deep gash into his belly he simply ignored it and sliced the false in half with a single swipe. The body dissolved into darkness and Kurtz couldn't help but smile. A smile that only made the zoan user's blood boil more than usual. "I'll end this right now. My most powerful move: Golden Claw!" He bellowed so loudly that some could've sworn they felt the ground tremble a bit.

The enormous grizzly bear charged at Kurtz with impressive speed and tore away at his body in a rapid flurry of slashes. The doctor attempted several time to get out of the move but would only be knocked back in by the next and more powerful strike. "Once you're caught there's no escaping. Now say goodnight!" Finishing the final slash, Kurtz stood there, a bloody mess. Ursa ended his assault with a final punch that sent the doctor flying backwards and through the wall of a nearby building.

The shipwright shifted back to his human form and fell to the ground. Energy spent on that last attack and his injuries finally catching up to him, Ursa couldn't do much more than smile in victory.

"Gahahaha~! Very impressive friend." Kurtz emerged from the rubble and dusted off his coat that was in shreds. "Even forcing me to go as far as using this illusion. I'll definitely remember you. If you live that is."

"Impossible, there's no way you can still be standing." The teen said feebly, struggling to get back on his feet only to fall back into the dirt.

"I'm sure we've had this discussion before, friend. In this world I decide what is and isn't possible. Luckily, before this battle however I pumped by body full of drugs just to be prepared should I take heavy damage. If not for that you surely would have beaten me with that last move." Aninky darkness took over the air around them before swirling around Kurtz.

His body took an oddly demonic form that was concealed by this same darkness until all sight was completely blotted out. The town was dead silent followed by a bloodcurdling scream.

Soon all the illusions vanished at once and there was only an unconscious Ursa on the ground. Although the boy's physical body was unscathed he had taken enough mental damage. Kurtz having taken real damage however was the only to show any signs of having been in a fight. A job completed, he reached into the boy's pocket and pulled out the Starfall Flag. "Better luck next time, friend~"

Back on the ship Froggy was sprawled out across the deck, having taken a few more blows. "Not fighting back but getting in my way will end up getting you killed." Julie said gravely. She threw another punch, this one hitting him gently in the neck. "Dizzy Punch."

The doctor stumbled around in a disoriented manner. "I won't fight back so I'll just hold you off here until Ursa returns with the flag. I believe in my nakama." The fishwoman gasped only for a moment before landing a finishing blow to his gut while in his unbalanced state. Froggy's eyes shut and he began to fall to the ground. His body stopped before this though, Julie had caught him and held the teen close to her body. "Captain said for me to claim whoever I defeated for this flag. I'm sorry…" The fishwoman snatched the flag from the steering wheel and jumped into the water with Froggy in her arms.

"Damnit, no!" Hideo shouted, punching the nearby wall. "They're taking Froggy and I can't even do anything about it.

Within the next 15 minutes a call came over the Baby Den Den from Van. "Hahaha, looks like we won the first round, Captain Katsua. As such I'll be taking your ship's doctor. I have 2 of my own, but one more wouldn't hurt, right?"

"Where's Ursa then? He still hasn't returned." The Den Den Mushi's face then changed into a friendly smile with an odd eye, now with a voice imitation of Kurtz. "I can answer that. The two of us had a little skirmish in the middle of town. Better go find him, to make sure he's still alive."

The Den Den Mushi changed back to Van, "And also get your asses over here so we can start the next game. The Groggy Ring!" Hideo growled, leaping over the side of the ship and running off to town. Haze and Takato followed closely behind their captain.

**Davy Back Fight: **Crimson Storm Pirates vs Starfall Pirates

**Game 1, "Capture The Flag" Winners: **Kurtz and Julie of the Starfall Pirates.

**Game 2, "Groggy Ring": **Takato and Haze of Crimson Storm vs Simian, Rena, and Kujo of Starfall

**Final Round, "Captain's Brawl": **Hideo of Crimson Storm vs Van of Starfall

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Alright, this chapter is one of the longer ones though I think it turned out pretty well. I intended to do all original games, but I liked Groggy Ring so I decided to keep it. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed. Don't forget to review and check out the DeviantArt page I mentioned earlier.


	24. Stay Groovy

Alright, so something I failed to realize in my last update is that this story's 1 year anniversary was on the seventh! As such I hope you guys enjoy some increased frequency in updates for a bit. :^D

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 24: Wild Western Showdown**

**Stay Groovy~  


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**

"Ursa, wake up!"

Haze was shouting and shaking the still unconscious body of Ursa in the middle of town. "What's up with him? He's out cold but there's not a scratch on his body." She placed an ear to his chest to be sure there was a pulse and could still hear a rhythmic thump of his heart. "Thankfully, he's still alive."

"It's because of Kurtz, that terror fruit of his deals damage to your mind rather than the physical body." Takato responded flatly. Hideo had been lost in thought at the moment but a light bulb seemed to go off in his head. "I think I know a way to wake him."

He bent down and reached into Ursa's 'stash'. When he removed his hand a bright orange bag of chips were in his grip, unopened. There was a light popping sound as he ripped open the bag and Ursa sprung to life, gripping his arm with the strength of an enraged beast. "Drop the bag now," the shipwright said coldly.

Hideo complied and dropped the junk food into the boys lap. "I figured that would work." Before Ursa could even figure out what was going on however Haze already had him wrapped up in a bear hug. Takato stood in the background, nodding his head and showing praise to their captain. "Excellent work, Lord Katsua."

The shipwrights face turned a deep read as Haze held him until he was dropped to the ground. "Ummm…." The boy mumbled trying to gather his thoughts until finally managing to get back to his feet. "Man, my head is killing me, and I can still feel the places I got cut even if they're not real. Anyway, how did we do?" At the sound of this Hideo looked away.

"We lost the first round and they took away Froggy." Takato spoke for his lord. "We're heading there now for the next game."

Ursa nodded in understanding and clenched his fists. "I'm sorry guys, I wasn't good enough and because of it we lost a nakama."

"Stop, if anyone should apologize it's me. I'm the one who accepted this challenge. I risked the people that meant the most to me for a single person we met a week ago." Hideo said quietly before picking his voice up in an optimistic tune, "But we won't go down that easily and I won't get my hopes down. There's no way I can lead a crew to victory if I'm already defeated, right?"

The rest nodded in agreement and moved on through town, Ursa being supported on Hideo's shoulder.

About this same time Froggy was opening his dreary eyes as well. His ears caught the sound of partying and merriment but around him all that could be seen was a dank brick room with a door at one end and very little light come from a nearby window. "Am I in a basement or something. Kiwi, Plum, and Mango were resting on top of his head. They all seemed rather relieved that he was okay. Well, all of them but Plum who continued to sleep.

"I'm happy you're finally awake," responded a familiar voice from across the room. Froggy sat up immediately to see Julie leaning against a wall, and for once since they left Toroa, smiling. He began to sit up and could feel something cold and metallic around his wrist. His eyes managed to trace down to the gold band wrapped around it much like Julie's.

"Is this what they did to you, gero gero?" He questioned, tinkering around with his new accessory. Julie responded by quietly shaking her head.

"No, I got into a fight with this crew and lost, but in order to protect those close to me I sacrificed my freedom."

"Even though it's a noble cause you don't seem very pleased with your choice, gero." Froggy asked, growing a bit interested now that they finally had a chance to talk without the need to fight. "You should have let us win, we could have saved you from these jerks." Froggy said rather determined, now on his feet and walking around the room looking for something.

The fishwoman remained quiet and looked away from him. He cringed lightly as he realized he had struck a nerve and decided to keep his mouth shut. Looking around the room he found a small piece of stone and attempted to bash the bracelet with it only to receive a light shock in return. "Yeow! That hurts, gero!"

The blue frog, Plum, seemed to be woken up by this surge of electricity and proceeded to spray a stream of water into Froggy's face. "Well, I still have my chemicals on me. I can bust us out of this dungeon basement in no time at all and get back to the crew!"

"Don't be an idiot. All those pirates up there would destroy us before we even got to the front door. And even if we did get that far they could simply set off these exploding bracelets and kill us." The fishwoman words were stern and harsh and even managed to make Froggy's happy smile fade. "All the random thugs they picked up on this island might be chumps, but the actual crew is full of monsters."

The doctor leaned against the wall and groaned loudly. He hated to admit it, but she was right. "Then I'll just make the best of our time down here then." He walked over to another end of the room and dusted off an old banjo. "It's a pretty old model, but still in groovy condition from the looks of it."

Julie began to snicker a bit and Froggy looked up to her in a perplexed manner. "Oh sorry, you just talk kind of funny. With the geros and now saying groovy." She held back several more laughs.

"My speaking will be the last thing you worry about after hearing this though!" He put the banjo in playing position and motioned for his frogs to move from their respective positions. They all now stood on one side of him in an attentive position. "Alright guys, same as usual. Let's take it to the top and make it groovy~ Gero." Now it was Julie's turn to be confused at what exactly was going on.

Now snapping his fingers he counted them off. "A 1, a 2, a 1, 2, ready, go." His fingers began to strum up and down the string of the banjo in whimsical and rhythmic fashion now flooding the room with some form of country backwater music. The sounds were glorious and the music was clear and lovely to follow as Julie sound found herself tapping her foot to the beat.

Soon afterward the three frogs began to croak loudly creating sounds that often clashed with the music and had now made the entire thing sound like some kind of train wreck but Froggy kept strumming away. This went on for about a minute or so until someone barged into the room and took away the banjo. It was a blue haired teen who Ursa had recognized as Allen from before. "Cut that annoying shit out!" He screamed, smashing the wooden instrument to pieces against the brick wall.

Froggy groaned again and sat against the wall, defeated. "Everybody's a critic nowadays. I love the sounds of frog croaking and music, gero." Julie's ahnds came together in a repeated motion as she applauded Froggy for his interesting (albeit short lived) performance. "Gero?"

"I liked it."

"Really? I don't think I've ever met anyone who enjoyed hearing Kiwi, Plum, and Mango sing along to the music."

"I liked it. I thought it sounded really beautiful. Thank you." Froggy blushed a little and looked away.

"Er…yeah, thanks for the compliment, gro," he responded, still not making full eye contact with the fishwoman. "Just trying to find a way to pass the time while we wait for my crew to show up and win this thing."

"You still believe they'll be able to win."

"If there's anything I won't do it's doubting my nakama. When they say they'll do something I give one hundred percent of my resolve to believe they will." He folded his arms and said strongly.

"If you don't mind me asking, why is that?"

Froggy seemed stumped on this question at first as his expression suddenly went to a look of blank thought. "How about this? Mind if I tell you a story?" The fishwoman nodded as Froggy began. "Well, I grew up on Mao Island here in the West Blue, gero. My dad was a pirate and died before I was born and my mother died giving birth to me. But there was still someone close to me I could treat as family…"

_**Flashback**_

"Haha, he'll freak out when he sees what I got."

A small child dressed in a plain white shirt and khaki shorts ran through the swamp like area. A book was held under his arms while in his other hand he had an odd flower with twisted petals and green spores dropping with each step the boy took. This child was none other than the young Froggy Duggs.

As the boy reached the cabin he swung the door open just in time to hear, "Booyah!" There was a sudden explosion afterwards that sent him and even the door flying out and into the cold and mud covered ground. Out from the open entry way into the home stepped out an elderly man. The little of his hair he still had was blown backwards and stiffened into that position.

He also seemed to be wearing a white lab coat though it was rather difficult to tell due to his entire body being charred almost jet black. He opened his mouth and allowed a thin line of smoke to escape into the air, coughing a bit as he did so. "Oh?" He spoke, having finally noticed Froggy. "Come on Froggy, what are you doing lying in the mud? Get up we have to head into town today, gero."

The child frowned and hopped to his feet, flailing the book and flower wildly. "It's your fault that I was knocked down anyway, Grandpa Swampy!" Passing it off for something more importantly however the boy flipped open his book and turned to a page that he then proceeded to pass on to the guy now known as Swampy. "I found it out in the swamp earlier!"

Swampy looked up and down the page the boy had shown him as well as the illustration which displayed the same flower Froggy had been holding not even five minutes ago. "Really? I've been looking for this thing for months. Let me see it, gero." Froggy smiled with pride as he held his hand out to the man. Swampy simply looked at the child's hand then back to his face and frowned.

Froggy seemed to notice this as well and looked at his hand to find all that was there was some shredded and charred plant. "Wait, this isn't fair! It's because of your explosion that it got destroyed, " he pleaded while trying to piece back together the destroyed specimen.

Swampy shook his head. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. I expected better from my grandson and appraentice. Lying is definitely not groovy, gero."

"…groovy…" The boy had stopped long enough to get those words out.

"What! Have a problem with the way I talk! I should have you know back in my day everyone used to talk like this. It was the cool thing, gero." The man spun around allowing his lab coat to billow him behind in a dramatic fashion as he struck a pose.

"Back in your day? I guess everyone said groovy and gero while they rode their triceratops to work too, huh.?" The boy said mockingly while walking towards the door.

"Gerahaha! A comedian are you?" The man crossed his arms and smiled. "Alright, just get cleaned up so we can get to town. While you do that I'll fix the door. Not like this is the first time I've blown it off its hinges, gero."

Some time had passed since then and as the two began to approach the town there seemed to be a man waiting on them. The guy was dressed in a purple suit and was carrying a golden pocket watch. "Ah, Swampy Duggs. Right on time as usual." He spoke gently while glancing down at Froggy. "And young Duggs as well. How have you been?"

Froggy opened his mouth to say something but Swampy steeped in between the two and interrupted his grandson. "Ah, we're doing fine Mayor. Just coming by to do our usual weekly rounds in town, gero." Although Swampy spoke in his usual kind demeanor there was an odd serious air about him due to the mayor's presence.

The mayor seemed to pick up on this and swapped his gentle expression for one much more stern indicating to the two of them that this was purely business. "I think it would be better if we discussed this back in my office."

They didn't like the sound of this, but had to oblige regardless. As the doctors passed through town Froggy couldn't help but see the glares they were getting from all of those around them. He knew what they were for though. Swampy grabbed the boy's shoulder and held him close to his body. "It's fine boy, everything will turn out groovy in the end, gero gero." The gray haired man gave a thumbs up and a wide smile.

Froggy nodded and smiled as well. _"I hope you're right. I just can't shake the feeling something terrible is about to happen."_

"What!" Froggy shouted from his seat in the mayor's office. Swampy couldn't help but stand to his feet as well, slamming his hands down on the mayor's desk. "There's no way he can do this, right Grandpa Swampy?"

The doctor remained quiet just long enough for the mayor to begin speaking again. "Well, the townspeople and myself believe that this is for your own good, Froggy boy. We can understand you and your grandfather share a certain bond, but he's just a bad influence on you."

"Bad influence? What nonsense is this?" Swampy shouted angrily, flinging a lamp on the mayor's desk into the wall where it shattered. "All I've done is raise this boy to the best of my ability since his parents died. I treated him as my own son and even taught him a trade that will be valuable to him the rest of his life!" Swampy's fists were clenched so tight that his knuckles were beginning to turn white as it seemed at any moment he could snap.

"Dr Duggs. Of the 64 patients you have tended to in these past couple of months please explain to me why all 64 have ended up injured in one way or another?" Swampy remained quiet for a moment as the mayor continued. "Broken teeth, diarrhea, homes burnt down. The list just goes on and on."

"So my medicine isn't perfect and they're still a work in progress. Of those 64 patients you mentioned though all of them were cured of their illness and lived to another day. A large portion of them even had life threatening illnesses the doctors in town couldn't treat." The mayor nodded in response and motioned for several men to enter the room. They stood above Froggy and motioned for him to go with them.

"No, I won't leave Grandpa Swampy! He's the only family I have left!" His small hands latched around the legs of the heavy wooden desk as the men tried to drag him away. Swampy was quick to spin around however and nail one of them in the face with a punch.

It wasn't long until several more men had barged in however and dragged the boy away and managed to restrain the enraged doctor; once things had settled a bit the mayor spoke once more. "As such, I have revoked your rights to practice medicine in my town as well as revoking your custody over that boy. He should have a new foster family over the next few weeks. "

Swampy was then dragged out of the room by a group of men. He didn't say a word but simply kept his eyes fixated on the mayor all the way up to the door, a single tear could be seen being shed by the old man.

Over the next couple of weeks no one in town had seen much of Swampy as it seemed he stayed locked up in his cabin in the swamps. Froggy had been put into a foster home where he hadn't said a word since that day he was separated from his grandfather. Over this time though a plague had spread amongst the town people and had even managed to inflict their doctors. With no one else able to save them the mayor called in Swampy. He managed to treat the town's doctors who proceeded to treat the rest of the town people. Once this had cleared Swampy was called back into the Mayor's office.

"Good work Mr. Duggs, or should I say Dr. Duggs?" The mayor smiled a genuine smile for once and handed Swampy a form. The man simply lifted and ripped the sheet in half causing the mayor to face fault.

"I'm not interested in that nor am I interested in any form of payment. I just want my boy back." He said sternly his face showing that he would not move on this matter. The mayor simply shook his head, smile now gone. "I figured you were a reasonable man Swampy. You should know there's no way that we can allow that to happen."

"Why not? I just saved the entire town, gero!" The doctor's voice had risen to a booming roar as he stood above the still lounging mayor. It was the mayor's turn to rise to his feet now though as he got into Swampy's face. "Because we don't want the boy growing up to be some kind of quack or a damned pirate like your god forsaken son."

This was the last straw for Swampy, he pulled his fist back and swung it forward with all the rage fueled strength his old muscles could manage. The end result was his fist colliding into the mayor's face and sending the politician out of the window behind him and down a three story drop to the street below. The doctor jumped down and looked over the unconscious man's bloody and mangled body.

Across the street from him however was Froggy who was staring wide eyed with shock at the scene in front of him. Swampy looked over to him, "Gero?" Froggy began to run with arms extended, ready to embrace his grandfather in a hug. "I saw you heading into town and snuck out just to see you."

Swampy smiled at first but soon pushed the boy away from him. Soon afterward there were several bangs, gun shots. Froggy's eyes were clenched tightly as he did not wish to believe it had happened, but he knew he'd have to face reality eventually. Slowing letting his eyes rest upon the sight he saw Swampy on the ground covered in blood and gunshot wounds. Police officers standing above him.

Moving without thinking he rushed in and turned his grandfather over on his back. "Grandpa Swampy! You have medical supplies on you right? I can fix you. Just let me…" He was cut off by his grandfather raising his hand to his mouth.

"Come on Froggy, I've taught you better than this. Look at the gunshot wounds. I've been hit in several vital organs (cough) there's no way I'll survive this one, gero." The boy's eyes began to tear up as he looked away for a moment, the only word managing to escape his lips being, "No."

"I don't have much time left Froggy, but I want you to hear this." The boy was all ears and even shook away the police officers as they attempted to pull him away from the scene. "You have a lot of potential, even more so than your father and I. So tell me this, what do you want to do with your life?"

The boy answered quickly. "I want to get strong like you and dad so I can come back to this twisted town and destroy it." Swampy's bloody fist came up above Froggy and swatted him across the head. "No, that's not your ambition. You're just saying that out of rage at the moment. What is it you really plan to do, gero (cough) gero?"

Froggy had to think this over for a moment but finally came to a conclusion. "I w-want to be just like you. And even though I never got a chance to meet him, I want to be just like dad too. I want to travel with close f-friends and become a great d-doctor. I want to make the both of you p-proud," he finally managed to stammer out which got a gentle smile from Swampy.

"Good, that's the answer I wanted to hear. Now remember that and don' ever let anyone take that goal away from you. If you really want to be like me then don't abandon your ambitions. My one goal in my old age was to raise you the best I could. I held on to that dream even to death. (cough) Now go ahead and get out of here before things get hairy, gero."

Froggy struggled to do so but finally managed to separate himself from Swampy's body. The whole town in an uproar, he used the chaos to make his way towards the exit and back to the swamp. From the town gate he could hear his grandfather's last words. "Froggy! Live long, prosper! And don't forget to stay groovy~"

The boy nodded and left the town behind him.

_**End Flashback**_

"From there I found his old research notes and continued my training. Keeping to my promise with him I continued to follow my goals and left Mao to work on Toroa for a while until I found a crew to join. Thankfully Hideo showed up one day and took me aboard gero gero." He finished his story and relaxed against the wall.

Julie smiled but remained silent. _"Staying true to your ambitions huh?"_

"Speaking of my crew, they should be getting ready for the second game soon enough right, gero?" At the sound of this Haze jumped to her feet and took Froggy by the hand.

"I almost forgot, the groggy ring is about to start. I'm sure you'd like to see them perform. Besides, it's one of the few times I'm allowed out of this room." Froggy simply continued to blush as he was led towards the main area of the building by hand.

Sure enough both crews were standing outside of the building. Van smiled and cried out,

"Let the second game begin!"

* * *

Alright, sorry to break the action up for a bit but decided to use this chapter to deal with some other plot points as well as presenting Froggy's background. This ended up being a bit longer than I had expected (possibly even the longest chapter yet), but I hope you guys enjoyed either way.

As I said I'll be trying an increased update frequency for a bit so hopefully the next chapter will be out by Thursday or Friday. Also, while reviewing for this chapter go ahead and answer this question. If you had to assign a song for each member of the crew, what would it be? It can relate to their personality, their theme, their history, or anything really.

Well, all said and done don't forget to review. Live long, prosper, and stay groovy~"


	25. The Second Game: Groggy Ring!

Something came up so I wasn't able to update on time, but one day off isn't too bad right?

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 25: Wild Western Showdown**

**The Second Game: Groggy Ring!

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**

"Never!"

A female voice shouted loud enough for possibly the entire town to hear. The two groups had already moved outside in order to prepare for their next game, the Groggy Ring. Drawn into the dirt was an enormous playing field with a ring on either side of it. On the far right were the representatives for the Starfall pirates. This team consisted of the blonde female wearing an eyepatch known as Rena, the four armed fishman known as Simian, and lastly the rugged and mysterious individual known as Kujo.

Kujo however had a colorful ball strapped to his head, much to his dismay. The pirate frowned while looking at the rest of his team. "Why couldn't this dumbass fishman put this ridiculous thing on?" He sneered glaring at Simian. The fishman in question simply cackled in response while adjusting the two large guns on his back. Rena could also be seen with a rifle of sorts strapped to her back as well.

It seemed the Crimson Storm crew was having similar issues. Hideo and Ursa could'nt do much more but sweatdrop at the back and forth that Haze and Takato were having. "There's no possible way I could serve my lord while wearing such a ridiculous ornament." The marksman said in a blunt fashion that only fueled Haze's annoyance.

"There's no way I would wear that dumb thing either. Just put it on!" She lifted the ball hat over head and quickly snapped it around Takato's head. "See, you don't even look half bad in it." Takato seemed on the verge of frowning but kept his trademark flat line expression while preparing to remove the ball. "I'm no idiot…"

Van couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Such an indecisive group you've got there captain."

Hideo sighed loudly and called over to the two of them. "Takato, you look pretty awesome in that hat." The marksman nodded wisely and spoke in a matter of fact sort of fashion. "Indeed, I shall be the ball then, for my Lord Katsua."

That said and done, the two of them took their position on the other side of the playing field and got prepared as Van explained the rules. "Alright, Groggy Ring is a simple games boys and gals. "Especially you my lovely Rena~" the blonde growled fiercely which managed to shut her captain up in a heartbeat. "Anyway, one player on each side will be the ball. Whichever side manages to score first wins. Normally this is a three vs three game with both sides being prohibited from the use of weapons, but seeing as the Crimson Failures have limited resources they will suffer a slight disadvantage. Both sides however have come to a decision of weapon use however. Now, let the games begin!"

The rowdy pirates Van had recruited burst into another uproar as the second match had officially begun. Amongst this crowd was both Julie and Froggy but it seemed none of the Crimson Storm pirates had noticed as of yet. Kujo began to crack his knuckles and rushed forward with incredible speed. "It's about fucking time I get to crush something. My fist have begging for me to kill something for hours now."

Haze readied herself as Takato lifted his bow and prepared an arrow. His eyes looked the man up and down his body slowly drew closer. "Not only is there ball heading straight for us but he's leaving his body completely open to our attacks. Whatever strategy they have in mind is pure suicide." Kujo seemed to only be focused on Haze at this point who wasn't moving.

"I don't know why, but my body is locking up. This guy I've never seen him in my life yet he seems so familiar" she claimed while drawing her sword. "But now isn't the time for this."

Before Kujo reached his intended target however two arrows went whizzing through the air and in his direction. The muscular man caught sight of them and smiled while punching the arrows heads with both fist. As he did so they both split right down the middle and continued speeding off past him. "Let's see how much Hazey girl has improved."

Haze seemed shocked for a mere moment but ducked back as the pirate punched towards her face. "What do you mean by that?" She responded while following up with a swing from her Nodachi. Kujo remained silent but smiled nonetheless. Despite having such a large frame the man managed to duck beneath her attack and follow up with an uppercut all in one swift motion. "Maybe using my devil fruit's power was a little too much for such a tiny crew as this."

As Haze was sent soaring into the air she recovered from the blow and aimed her sword downward while adjusting her position. A platform of red energy formed behind sword user that she used to push off of and launch herself directly down towards Kujo. "Kakuu-kagai! (aerial assault)" The great sword came towards the pirates body in a downwards swing that he leaped away from. The blade struck down with great force and left a tiny fissure where she landed and blowing up a dust cloud.

"Opening spotted." Takato said to himself and sent two more arrows going Kujo's way. "Gunpowder Bolt!" The muscular man saw them coming out from the smoke and prepared to dodge but the arrows exploded before even reaching him. The pirate put his arms up to guard himself and was pushed back by the strength of the explosions. Once the smoke had cleared the only visible damage done to him were the burnt and still smoking sleeves of his green coat.

"You finally done showing off over there?" Rena hissed from the other side of the field along with Simian. Kujo nodded and returned to their side scratching his head. "I'm warmed up enough. This is going to be a pretty crappy fight though. But I'll take what I can get."

Haze prepared to step forward and fight but was stopped as takato put his hand in front of her. "Don't do it. The numbers are against us and we have little information on these three. It would be wiser to stay back and let them come to us."

The swordsman pouted and rushed forward regardless. "No way am I going to just stand there and let them get to our side and score. Just stand back and covered me." Takato shook his head but was ready to fire at a moment's notice.

Van was now speaking into a microphone that connected to speaker type Den Den Mushi. "Seems the Crimson Failure team can't even work together for a common goal. How do they expect to pull through and win this one?"

Haze ignored the announcer's comments however and aimed at taking out all three of her opponents in one attack. "Dai Konki- Bakuha (great energy blast)!" She shouted while horizontally swinging the nodachi. Red energy traveled along the blade's edge and launched forward in the form of blade shape energy attack. The difference between this and her original attack however seemed to be the fact that this one was large in terms of horizontal length and thus more difficult to avoid and able to take out large groups.

The opposing pirate teem didn't seem to be bother by this however as the three of them jumped into the air above the attack in unison allowing it to simply keep going and out of the playing field. Haze smiled. _Just as planned. _"Takato, now!"

The boy seemed to catch on rather quickly to what her idea was and unloaded several zigzagged shaped arrows. "Lightning Bolt!" They were golden in appearance the moment they left Takato's bow they seemed disappear from sight. Sure enough it only took a moment before each member of the Starfall crew had a lightning bolt shaped arrow stuck in them. The first had struck Rena's shoulder, the next on in Kujo's arm, and the last in one of Simian's extra arms. They all came back to the ground and proceeded to remove them from their bodies.

Rena smiled gleefully as her shoulder began to bleed in a profuse manner. "Hm, a fellow sniper I see…" Her left hand coiled around a pistol at her side. "The way those arrows are designed are to they purposely fly with a zigzagging and confusing pattern making them difficult for any opponent to keep track of and avoid. But you must be a pretty good marksman if you can aim these so effectively."

Despite the compliments coming his way Takato had already reloaded his bow and was at the ready for another round. Haze on the other hand had her own problems to solve as Simian was now standing in front of her. "Smekeke. I get to play with you today I see. You'll surely make a fine specimen once we win this game."

"Don't count on it ugly." She responded and swung at one of his extra arms. _"I should use regular techniques for now. Used way more energy than I should have on that last attack." _Haze thought to herself as Simian had jumped back and pulled out one of his weapons. It was a rather crude and modified MGL (multiple grenade launcher) with odd capsules loaded into the 6 holders of the revolver.

"How about you have fun with some of my other favorite experiments?" He fired 3 capsules from the weapon on to the ground that split open and released a green goop with a rancid smell. From the strange liquid however rolled out an entire group of miniature shrews. Haze looked at them confused then back to Simian who only continued to smile before saying, "Now, attack, my minions!"

The moment the fishman got these words out the shrews began to growl in a feral manner and all leaped towards Haze covering her nearly head to toe. "Ahhh, what the hell is this!" She screamed as the little rodents began to bite into her skin.

"Smekeke. Man, what's biting her? Smekeke~" The fishman continued to cackle as Haze was gone into a frenzy to remove whatever had latched onto her body. Soon enough however she began to release energy from her body that repeled them to the ground. Moments later the entirety of the shrew armor fizzled away into a green slime. "What was that?" She shouted angrily.

"Just me having some fun before getting to the main course." He put away his first weapon and pulled out another. This one having a nozzle and hose rather than a barell and a tank at the top filed with green ooze. To put it simply it resembled something like an enormous water gun. "I call this one, Simian's Silly Slime, smekeke."

"Lightning Bolt." Two more zigzagging arrows were sent Rena's way but she easily solved this problem. From her clothing she pulled out a large iron sphere. Once thrown into the ground it burst into a cloud of smoke but there was the decisive sound of metal clanging against metal. Once the smoke had cleared it was revealed that sphere had released an odd contraption and unfolded into a shield.

From behind her barrier Rena managed to fire off two rounds from the pistol she had grabbed. Instead of firing bullets however, two quick moving fireballs made their way to Takato hit and hit dead on, covering him from head to toe in a blaze for a short while. "I'm not done." He said and loaded another new bolt. This one had a dip in the side of the arrowhead and all the way down to the end of it. In fact, the entire thing was a curve. "Your defense won't save you from this one."

The arrows were released and instead of following a straight path they instead curved outwards and around the woman's barrier. She clicked her teeth out of annoyance and leaped back to avoid while firing two shots from separate pistols.

Takato's eyes followed the two slow moving balls of iron going way off target from him as he wondered what her plan was. It wasn't until they had both gotten alongside the marksman did their effect activate. A line of electricity surged between the sphere that managed to catch Takato and send a violent shock coursing throughout his body. His eyes seemed to go completely blank until his legs gave in and the marksman fell to the floor, body charred and emitting smoke.

Shortly after this Haze was knocked to the ground as well at his side. Simian stood on the other side of the battlefield with an enormous mallet made of green slime slung over his shoulder. "I maybe a doctor and a shrimp, but never underestimate the strength of a fishman."

"Looks like both members of the Crimson Fail crew are out of it. The winners are obvious here folks." Van announced which sent the pirates into another uproar.

Haze and Takato stayed on the ground, unmoving and watched the sun up above. "You know, Takato, for a crew we've never really been a good team." The boy remained silent and unmoving but his eyes were focused on Haze. "Like when we had that argument back on Rushville and I slapped you. You're just the logical thinker and I'm so headstrong, ya know?"

The marksman nodded and began as well, "It was a novel about my dreams and feelings." Haze didn't know where this had come from and could only respond with a simple, "Hm?"

Takato adjusted himself and began to sit up but fell back on to his back. "When we were on our way to Myer Island and you took that book I was writing in from me. It's a novel I planned to write on my dreams and feelings. Back when Lord Katsua and I first met he asked me these questions and I couldn't answer them. And even now I don't know what the right thing is."

"Maybe, there just isn't a right or wrong answer?" She responded with a cheerful smile as a cloud passed overhead and blocked the sun for a short period.

"Well then folks, this game is done." Van continued to play the role of announcer and apparently referee at this point. "It's no wonder however. How these two could expect to win when they have a useless captain such as that dope over there. I mean…" Van was cut off by a sudden explosion as the speakers his voice was being transmitted through were busted. Back on the battlefield Haze and Takato were standing, both supporting the other's weight; Haze's nodachi still glowing with red energy and Takato reloading his bow.

"Insult our captain again and the next attacks are headed for you." Haze said confidently while turning to face their opponents once more. "You think you can keep going? I should have enough energy for at least a couple more big attacks."

Haze stepped away from Takato and towards the other side of the field. "What other choice do I have?" He had several more arrows loaded and ready to attack.

"Good, I'll go for that big guy and try to score as soon as possible. You'll back me up to the bitter end right?" Takato nodded and Haze's legs began to glow with energy. "Good, I should manage to sprint over there pretty fast just make sure the other two stay off me. We can't lose this second game no matter what."

In a flash Haze went into a speedy dash across the field aided by her devil fruit. This caught the opposing side by surprise but they were already on the move. Simian and Rena closed in on the sword carrier but were stopped by a series of explosions from Takato's gunpowder bolts. Kujo laughed and braced for impact as Haze grew closer. "And so the little guppy comes to fight the big bad shark?"

"Let's see this big bad shark stand up to my strongest move." She began as the energy from her legs vanished and instead her sword began to shine fiercely. "Sakura Odo…" She was cut off by Kujo's fist connecting with her stomach and completely kncking the wind out of her body. "Too slow, Guppy."

His strength was more than enough to heave the girl back over to her side of the field and at Takato's side. She spat up a bit of blood but didn't back down. "Guess we'll just have to rework our strategy."

"Too late for that." Rena remarked while putting away her pistols and pulling out another iron ball. She quickly threw it down at their feet where it exploded into a thick glue like substance that stuck Takato's feet to the ground and Haze's entire body as she was lying on the ground. Simian tossed the green mallet aside and released more of the slime from the nozzle while quickly shaping it at the same time.

"Simian's Silly Slime has well over 1000 uses you know. Silly Slime #622: Champion Simian!" The fishman commanded as it had now surrounded all four of his fist in oversized boxing gloves. Takato started lifting his bow to fire another bolt but two fists collided into his chest at once, followed by the next two, followed by three. Soon the marksman was being assault by a flurry of punches from the doctor to the point that blood was beginning to drop to the ground and stain Simian's white lab coat. With a final decisive blow, the fishman struck him with all four fists at once in a final uppercut that lifted him and a chunk of earth stuck to his feet as well.

"Takato!" Hideo called from the sidelines as he saw the teen was just barely conscious and struggling to keep his eyes open.

"Guess I'll have to conclude my fun with this for the day." Kujo leaped into the air and grabbed Takato, putting him in a pile driver. The marksman was slammed headfirst into the ground inside of the goal ring with enough force to make a small crater where he landed. Kujo stood up and dusted of his hands while grabbing haze from the ground after Rena had thrown some sort of solvent into the slime. "We'll be claiming this as our prize."

As the group of Starfall pirates burst into applauds Hideo and Ursa were already at Takato's side. Froggy and Julie also came out of the crowd and stood at the side of the fallen teen. "Froggy, he's not moving or anything, you have to help him!" Hideo said frantically at grim sight in front of him.

Takato was a mess, covered in blood and tattered clothes and remained unresponsive. Froggy didn't seem to confident but smiled and said shakily, "I'll do what I can."

"So Hideo, what will you do now?" Van questioned, but the gray haired teen ignored him for the time being.

Meanwhile, just off of Wild Western Town several marine vessels were sailing towards the location of the pirate game. A large man with green hair and in a uniform customized with chains and the like spoke into a Den Den Mushi. "Yes sir, this is Lieutenant Commander Roland Grand of the Karkade Division. Along with the rest of the soldiers we're on our way to Wild Western Town with…_him _in charge. We should be hitting land and starting this pirate extermination soon."

**Davy Back Fight: **Crimson Storm Pirates vs Starfall Pirates

**Game 1, "Capture The Flag" Winners: **Kurtz and Julie of the Starfall Pirates.

**Game 2, "Groggy Ring" Winners: **Simian, Rena, and Kujo of the Starfall Pirates.

**Final Round, "Captain's Brawl": **Hideo of Crimson Storm vs Van of Starfall

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Alright, hope you guys enjoyed that one. Most of you are probably wondering how the Crimson Storm Crew will turn this around after losing not only one, but two members. You'll get your answer to that next chapter. Oh, and in case any one is wondering about some of the references made in this chapter you can check out chapter 12 for the diary that Takato and Haze speak about and chapters 7-11 for Roland and the Karkade divison

As for plans for future update schedules I may manage the next one on Sunday, if not then you can likely expect it on Tuesday or Wednesday. After that there won't be anymore updates until another week or so due to me going out of town for the Thanksgiving break.

So lastly I'd just like to mention a manga I read this week by the name of Onani Master Kurosawa. It's really good and only about 30 chapters so you should manage to finish it rather quickly. Now, the plot is rather off putting, but if you give it a chance and read to the end I can guarantee you won't be disappointed.

As usual, review; hope you enjoyed, and that you'll stick around until the next update.


	26. All or Nothing!

So I know I said I'd get this out Tuesday, but I decided to attempt one massive update and update all three of my stories at once. Though my parents changed the day we're leaving for Thanksgiving, so I'll settle with just uploading this and my new Naruto story. Hope you guys enjoy.

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 26: Wild Western Showdown**

**All or Nothing!

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**

"Perhaps you should just give it up now?"

Van taunted him from the balcony back inside of the building. Hideo on the other hand had his mind focused on more sever matters, that being Takato's current condition. Fortunately, Van was generous enough to allow Froggy to look after the marksman during their game. "Will he be alright?"

Froggy turned to face the Crimson Bomber and smiled for the first time since the end of the Groggy Ring. "Yeah, he's doing much better now. He has several broken bones, severe burns, and a mild concussion so I'm unsure of when he'll be up and moving again, but his will to live is astounding, gero gero."

Hideo grinned and got up from his crouched position near Takato. As he looked to Van there was an obvious determination burning in the pirates eyes that managed to catch the mismatched teen by surprise. "What are you so smug about? Even if you do, by some miracle, manage to win this final game you'll still be missing the fish girl and one of your own crewmates."

The gray haired teen however didn't falter and instead reached into his coat and pulled out a small glass sphere with a compass needle at its center, an eternal pose with no name. Van's eyes widened with shock for a moment before he slamming his fists on the balcony's railings, causing the wood to splinter under his force. "How did you get that?"

"Froggy and Takato found it after your lackeys attacked us on Toroa. Apparently one of them left it behind. I wasn't sure if it was important though until your reaction just now." Van looked to his right where he saw Simian smiling nervously. Without warning, the pirate captain turned around and gave the four armed fishman a punch to the face that sent him to the floor. Hideo continued speaking, "So, I'm going to make a bet. All or nothing. You win then you can have this and win the entire Davy Back Fight. But if I win then you give me back my crew and Julie."

"And why would I do that when I can simply outnumber you with my pirate force and take it away anyway?"

"I know you won't because you said it yourself before the first game. To you there's no such thing as gray, only a black and a white. You're a gambler and unless there's risk you see no pleasure in it. That said, I'm sure the high stakes all or nothing style of gambling suits you well. Does it not?"

"Hahahaha!" Van laughed maniacally before leaping from the balcony and down to the center of the cleared room. "You got me there. I accept. Now let me explain the final game. This is the Captain's Brawl, the deciding battle between the two of us. If either of us hits the ground and doesn't get up within a count to ten seconds they are declared the loser." Hideo simply nodded while handing Froggy the eternal pose to be sure it wasn't damaged in the fight. "Let's begin, shall we?"

That said, Van rushed towards Hideo, arm cocked back and prepared to punch with his right. Not expecting the sudden start, Hideo stood his ground and crossed his arms, successfully blocking the punch then lifting his knee to stop a punch from Van's left hand. Even with both punches being stopped however he felt a sudden punch to the gut that sent the Crimson Bomber skidding away from his opponent.

Finally stopping he decided to shake off this phenomenon and pulled out four sticks of dynamite. "Crimson Bomber!" He shouted while tossing the red explosives in various places around the black and white captain. There was an explosion but Van soon emerged and hit Hideo in the face with a single punch that sent him flying into the wall.

The captain wiped the blood from his lips and stood shakily before regaining balance. _"What the hell was that? I know he only used that on fist to hit me, but it felt like I was being attacked by four."_

"Come on, Captain Katsua. I expected more from this." Van taunted and rushed in again, this time with a kick at Hideo's face. Dodging to the side Hideo kept a close eye on his opponents and as Van's feet struck the wall he noticed something odd. Instead of having one hole where the kick landed there were instead four.

Not giving him time to think However Van was upon the bomb user and hitting him with an assault of kicks and punches. The captain pulled out a small blue stick and snapped it in half in between the two of them. "Air bomber!" As it was snapped, compressed air was released in the form of a breeze that pushed the two of them to opposite sides of the room.

"I saw it that time. I finally managed to catch it." Hideo spoke, wiping the blood from his face on his red jeans coat. Van smiled. "Your limbs, at the very last moment off attack, they split into separate limbs and turn back into one. It's so quick that I couldn't really see it until you hit me with all of those attacks a moment ago."

The black and white teen nodded, "Good eye there, most people don't catch on to my devil fruit power so soon. I ate the Han Han no mi (opposite opposite fruit)." In a display of this ability Van held out his right arm and shocked people when it did indeed split into three more creating four arms in total. "You may know my Devil Fruit's power now, but what will you do to stop it?"

Van charged in again, but Hideo seemed prepared this time. Glue Bomber! He took out several white dynamite sticks this time and tossed them at the devil fruit user who simply jumped over them. As they flew past one soon burst into sticky white glue and cued the others to do the same. "Nice invention there, too bad it missed." He spun around and prepared a kick but suddenly noticed several wire in Hideo's hands.

"Glue Bomber Special: Boomerang Shot!" Pulling on the wires, the airborne glob of glue came flying back at Van and caught him by surprise; having no way to dodge while in the middle of his kick he was caught and glued to the wall. Hideo didn't stop there however, soon following it up with another move.

"Crimson Bomber v2: Grand Crimson Bombers!"

He tossed two lit sticks of dynamite that appeared much fatter than the original Crimson Bombers towards the subdued pirate, having them stick to the glue. "Damnit, I'm not going to just sit here until those fuses run out!" Van shouted, eight arms and eight legs then protruded from the glue as he pushed with all his might and freed himself at the last moment.

The explosion pretty much took down the entire wall and gave everyone inside a clear view of what was outside. As the City Hall building was on the edge of town it rested right next to the ocean. _"If I can somehow manage to knock him in the ocean then I should be able to win this."_

Standing on his feet was Van, the backside of his clothing completely burned off and his back covered in sever burns from the explosion. "Nice move there, Crimson Bomber. Those explosions hurt like a bitch." He cracked his neck and got on the move again.

Hideo was ready to get on the defensive but was surprised by Van's sudden boost in speed. Looking down to his feet however would reveal why this had happened however. His legs had split into two each, giving him four in total. By the time this was realized however it was much too late as Hideo found himself struck in the chest by four fists at once. This time however he didn't move from his current position, in fact, Van didn't either.

"I still had one Glue Bomber left so I decided to lay down this little trap." The Crimson Bomber smiled and jumped out of his cowboy boots while tossing another bomber at Van's feet. The explosion was enough to knock the mismatched man to the floor and out of the glue.

From sidelines Froggy and Ursa began to cheer. "Booyah! Eat that, gero!"

"Way to go Hideo! Don't let him scare you with that weird power of his."

As Van lay on his back, Kurtz began to count, but the odd thing was the fact that Van wasn't even knocked out or anything of the sort. Instead he was on the floor laughing, his amusement seeming to grow higher with each number that the purple haired doctor managed to get out until reaching eight. At that point the captain leaped to his feet and ripped off the tatters that remained of his coat, his scarf oddly enough still being in decent condition and hanging to his side.

"This is good; I didn't expect to be pushed so far by any pirate in this blue after I reached the top of the food chain. But then you stroll and decide to gamble with me for your friends." Cracking his knuckles he retracted his extra limbs and suddenly got serious. "Guess it's time I finally lived to my high stakes fighting style." Hideo seemed confused by what he meant by this.

"Han Han no mi: Blue Hour."

Suddenly, Van split straight down the middle into two separate Vans. They were each the same in every manner even down to the battle wounds from this fight. The only exception was the fact that one had a full head of white hair and pure white eyes while the other had a full head of black hair and pure black eyes.

It didn't stop here however as the Van's split again down the middle, now producing four of him in total. Again, they were the same except the last two having red and yellow hair and eyes respectively. "And Blue Hour Level 2: Terminator." All four said in unison. Everyone in the room seemed shocked by this with the exception of Kurtz, Simian, Rena, and Julie.

"Guess I'll just knock you guys down until there's only one left then." Hideo said confidently and rushed towards the group. _"I'm not the best fighter in physical confrontation, but I can't keep using bombers left and right Need to conserve some for the finishing blow."_

As he drew near the Vans instead seemed more focused on conversing with each other. "Haha, this is such a fun game. Maybe we should extend the Davy Back Fight another round. What do you say guys." The white Van spoke and suddenly received a punch to the back of the head from the black Van. "Don't be a fucking Idiot. Let's just destroy this trash and move on." The first Van rubbed the back of his head and tears began to fall from his eyes.

The yellow Van said something so lightly that it was practically inaudible yet drew the attention of the black one. "What the hell did you say, Yellow? Talking shit behind my back are you?" Yellow seemed to shrink in the presence of black and spoke timidly. "No, of course not, just please refrain from yelling so much. Please…you don't have to or anything, just…I'm sorry."

"Orange turned away from the trio behind him and prepared to face Hideo head on. "You guys are a mess. I'll handle this fool, no way you guys will ruin my bet of a lifetime!" Now that Hideo was in range Orange ducked below the Crimson Bomber's punch with surprising speed and placed a punch to the captain's cheek.

Hideo brushed it off however and continued on after pushing Orange to the side. Yellow's eyes followed his movements however, "Right punch to your nose" he said timidly.

"What?" Black shouted and turned back to the front to see the gray haired captain right in front of him. He braced for impact but soon white was in front of him and took the punch to the face without even so much as flinching. "Ow, that hurt you meany!" He shouted to Hideo who seemed shocked but attempted to move around the wall in front of him only to stop when he was Black grabbing Yellow by the hair.

"You damn nitwit! I nearly got hit because you can't speak up in situations like these. Now grab him!" Sure enough Hideo suddenly felt one of his arms in the grip of Yellow and the other being held by White. He attempted to overpower the two but now Orang had a good grip on him as well.

"I'm going to enjoy this." Spoke Black while cracking his knuckles. This van copy landed a punch to Hideo's face that knocked the captain dizzy. His vision blurred and as more forceful blows came his way his blood was beginning to splatter on the wooden floor. The final blow was a straight punch to the gut that sent him flying back and to the ground.

Kurtz began the count once more, but didn't get far before Hideo was on his feet again. "I got pretty messed up in the process, but I figured out a bit more on your fruit." The multicolored copies stood in a straight line and looked to Hideo, awaiting his explanation. "Once you split into fours each clone specialized in a particular combat strength but sacrificed the other. That's why I was able to brush of the orange ones attack but felt like someone was beating my head in with a sledgehammer when the Black one hit me. Orange is speed, Black is Strength, White is endurance, and Yellow is the eyes, the accurate one."

Orange clapped his hands in applauds before rushing The Crimson Bomber again. "Good observations, you make this game more and more fun, but you still don't even know the half of this fruit's powers. If it were that simple it wouldn't have allowed me to become the Strongest Pirate in West Blue."

Hideo got to the ready and ran forward as well. _"He's the fastest of the group, but his punches are weak enough for me to shrug off. I need to move past him and take out Yellow or Black seeing as they will be the main problems."_

Once in attacking range Orange began to smile again and lifted his fist. Hideo didn't appear to be backing down however as he ran straight towards the punch. "High Stakes: Center Pot!" All four called in unison. Suddenly, the arms of the other three Vans shrunk in width while at the same time Orange's seemed to triple in width and become rather swollen and muscular. By this point it was too late however and Hideo was nearly knocked to the ground by the force of the punch, but seemed to be completely out of it.

"High Stakes: Double Up!"

"Uh oh, that's one of his finishing moves. If Hideo get's caught in that, he's done for." Julie said gravely to Ursa and Froggy who froze in place and watched the battle from the side knowing there was nothing they could do about this. Orange leaped up and placed both of his feet on Hideo's shoulders, using them to clamp around the captain's head.

Leaning forward he brought the two of them back down and stood in a handstand with the captain still being held in place, unresponsive. Now the other three Vans had their legs shrink in both width and length. Orange's legs instead tripled in the departments, becoming gargantuan in size.

"It was fun while it lasted!" That said, he held him high above the floor in his feet before finally slamming the captain to the ground, the wood splintering and shattering beneath him and the pirates bursting into rowdy cheers.

At the epicenter of the destruction was Hideo's body, completely unresponsive and beaten. Kurtz began the count once again.

"1…"

"Hideo, stop playing, get up!" Ursa shouted to his captain.

"2…"

"I think we broke him" White said in a child like tone.

"3…"

"There's no way that scrawny thing is going to get up after that attack." Some of the pirates on the sidelines chatted away and laughed.

"4…5…"

"Smekekeke. At least his body is still one piece. I could use that." The Plagued Quack joked to Kurtz from the sidelines, but seemed eerily serious.

"6…"

"Hideo, you have to get up. This is not very groovy at all, gero!"

"7…"

"No way that fucker survived that blow. Let's just wrap this up and move." This time it was black speaking.

"8…9…"

"Lord Katsua…" Takato said faintly, consciousness barely returning to him.

"10…"

* * *

Alright, hope you guys enjoyed that chapter. Plenty of action and I think the first chapter to focus completely on single fight without another going on or some other event.

As a special thing for Thanksgiving I'd like people to say what they give thanks for. Me, I'm thankful for my most devoted Readers (Munchlax Jr, LaZy-RaIn-DaNcEr, Vincent, Motordog, Dthehaldragon) who review when they can and/or send in wonderful OCs. I'd also like to thank those from OPRP who read my story and allowed me to use their characters here.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, I'll see you next update, and don't forget to check out my new story! Taking this from my buddy, Munchlax Jr: Read, Relax, and Review. The three R's.


	27. Hideo's Comeback

Sorry for disappearing for a bit, had Thanksgiving and whatnot plus my internet went out for a bit. For some reason I found this chapter difficult to type, it was odd to say the least. But today I present this epic triple update with new chapters to all 3 of my current stories. Enjoy~

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 27: Wild Western Showdown**

**Hideo's Comeback

* * *

**

"10…"

"What are you guys getting so worked up over?"

Right before everyone's eyes Hideo was standing on his two feet once more. The last attack had obviously taken its toll however as his legs were shaking under his own weight. "Have some chocolate, It'll ease your nerves." The captain said, tossing one to Froggy, Ursa, and Julie who couldn't stop smiling.

"What? This can't be possible!" Rena screamed from the balcony while slamming her fist into the railings out of sheer frustration. Kurtz seemed to simply raise an eyebrow out of interest while Simian cackled away. Walking over to the purple haired doctor she began to shake him by the shoulders. "Why didn't you count faster or something?"

Kurtz readjusted his coat and responded in a calm fashion. "Calm down, Friend. That boy surely has some impressive stamina to get up from that blow and the previous attacks from the captain, but don't belittle Van in such a way. He has more up his sleeves than that move."

All four Van bodies had already regrouped and seemed to be in some sort of huddle. "Yay, we can play a little longer!" White shouted excitedly which got him a punch in the face from Black. The pure white clone looked up to his attacker and began to shudder causing black to begin growling. "You better not fucking cry." This command was a bit too late however as the waterworks had already begun.

Orange sighed in annoyance. "Whatever, you all got the plan, let's get moving." As the huddle broke Hideo got back into his fighting stance as the room grew dead silent.

"Woohoo! Hideo, show him what's what!" Looking to his right the gray haired captain could see Haze jumping up and down cheering. He smiled. "Good to see you back up and to yourself. Takato as well." He now looked to the marksman who was sitting up now and still being treated by Froggy along with Ursa and Julie.

"Seems my entire crew is watching me now, that includes Julie as well. Sorry Van, but this is a fight I can't afford to lose." The four clones all smirked and got into battle ready positions.

"Guess we'll have to get serious now." That said, the multicolored quartet charged forward.

Back at the Crimson Hammer, four figures could be seen standing at the ships deck observing it. "Hehe, how much do you think we could get for this ship, Captain Collin?" The pirate laughed to himself as he took hold of the steering wheel and began to move away from the shore. "We'll hold off on selling this bad boy, first let's present it to Van, I'm sure we'd get some nice rewards from him as well." At the sound of this the other pirates on board began to cheer as the man navigated the vessel along the edge of the island.

While this was going on the people living in Wild Western Town had all gathered outside along the streets. Marching down the center of the road was a marine squad. Leading this squad however was a familiar set of faces or at least familiar to the Crimson storm Pirates. Roland walked with his hands in the pockets of his thick coat while keeping an eye on the red head behind him who was screaming her head off about something to the pink haired marine.

"Rin! Wash out your jacket before we leave the ship next time! You jumped in the ocean and now it smells like seawater!" Procne began to scream while holding her nose, giving her voice an odd and nasally sound that made the purple haired girl next to her giggle a bit. "Is something funny Miss Sugar Princess?" The logia user shook her head and looked away. And you, Giselle, say something!" She said, pointing at the fnial of the five.

The veiled woman shrugged her shoulders. "Why, so you can have an excuse to yell at me as well?" She said sarcastically from beneath the cloth covering practically every bit of her body but her eyes.

"Exactly, you know me all too well." The red headed marine was surprised however as she ended up walking right into Roland's backside as he had stopped in his tracks. In front of him he was looking at a small blue haired girl wearing a pearl necklace. He lifted an eyebrow and crouched down to get more on level with the girl.

"Are you going to where the pirates are?" Roland nodded and ruffled the child's hair in a playful manner while getting back up. Despite these actions however his face remained rigid and serious. "Yes," he responded, "We'll remove those pirates and be sure that they never bother your home ever again. We'll lock up every single one of them." Beginning to move again, the muscular man saw his walkway still being blocked off, by the same child no less.

This time she had her arms spread out to her sides with tears running from her eyes. "I can't let you through." From the crowd emerged her father who looked on with a face full of fear. Procne stepped up, popping her knuckles, but got a glare from Roland that made her back down.

"My brother is there and the gray haired pirate that helped me. He's going to bring him back from those jerks!" At the sound of this it seemed Roland's interest had been caught by the child. _"Gray haired pirate, huh? Is it you again. Hideo?"_

The marine was ready with a response, but before he knew it the girl had been carried off the street by her father. Instead a soldier approached him now and whispered something into the large man's ear that made his face contort into an annoyed frown. "I knew something like this would happen when we ended up forced to work with that guy. Whatever, we can't afford to wait on him. Let's keep moving men."

As the Van bodies all approached, Hideo did something hat shocked everyone in the room. "Catch me if you can." He taunted and ran to the other side of the room towards the hole in the wall previously created. The doppelgangers looked at each other but seemed to agree on continuing their chase.

"Running? And to think I started to respect that kid. Coward." Kujo spat from his position on the balcony. His companion in all black said nothing, arms crossed and eyes peering out the window. At last, he spoke, "Kujo, we need to finish up here." The rugged man turned to him and frowned as the silent man got up from his seat and walked away.

Kurtz looked at him for a short moment before returning his gaze to the fight. _"That Crimson Bomber is trying to lead him outside and near the water. I'm sure Van realizes this too though."_

As Hideo neared the gaping hole in the building he was soon cut off by Orange standing in his way. "Did you forget that I was the fastest of the four?" Hideo tried to push the teen back but instead the two locked hands in a power struggle. Looking back Hideo noted that the size of the arms on one of the bodies had decreased. "This should be enough strength to hold you in place while the other gets here. Then we can have fun beating you into submission."

Hideo simply smirked and at this point Orange noticed he was chewing on something. "Sorry," the Crimson Bomber spoke, "I didn't expect to be running this low on explosives, so I'm having to improvise." Orange opened his mouth to say something but was cut off as the teen spit a red liquid in his eyes causing him to release his grip and clutch his face.

"Gah! This burns, it burns, it burns, it burns, it burns!" Free from the devil fruit user Hideo continued moving until he was standing outside and just over the ledge. He looked down and could see the water churning against the side of the island about forty feet below them. "Sorry abut that, spicy cinnamon candy. Not one of my favorites, but it seems like it came in handy."

"Cheap shot you bastard!" Black yelled as the four of them were finally outside. Orange's eyes were red and watering, but he seemed to have recovered. Hideo shrugged. "Call it whatever you like, but that's the length I'm willing to win this match, even at the cost of my own pride as a captain." Black cracked his knuckles and growled but Orange laughed a bit.

"You know, we haven't known each other for long, but I'm liking you more and more, Katsua." Orange suddenly sprinted forward and threw a kick that Hideo ducked under and leaped forward, tackling the guy to the ground. The clone growled and tossed him to the side with inhuman strength which was his own increased by the other clones. Stumbling back to his feet he soon found both Yellow and White charging him from opposite directions.

He began leaping back to avoid their assault but suddenly each of them held out their palms which expanded to monstrous size that trapped him in between. _"I gotta move!"_ Hideo shouted to himself as he struggled to free his body from their combined grip. He looked to his left and right and a sudden light bulb seemed to go off in his head. Black began to approach, fists ready to pummel the teen but White suddenly began laughing and released his grip, allowing Hideo to escape.

Black growled and grabbed his oppositely colored clone by the shirt. "What, he kept on tickling me? It was funny." Noticing Hideo beginning to move to the ledge again Orange was already after him. Oddly enough however Hideo stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face the devil fruit user.

"Now," Was all the captain said as a sudden explosion went off in the clone's pocket. He began to fall to the ground, but due to his speed his body didn't stop there and continued going until he had fallen over the edge. Hideo looked down to see the body continue falling until hitting the water and oddly disappear once completely submerged.

From inside he could hear the cheering from his crew. Ursa looked over to Haze, "I didn't know Hideo had voice activated bombs. That's pretty awesome. Where could he get some tech like that?" The sword user simply shrugged her shoulders.

"He doesn't," this was the voice of Takato, who was sitting against the wall and still watching the fight. "I saw what happened back there. Back when they first got out there and he tackled the orange guy to the ground he placed a bomb in his pocket before being tossed to the side. I'm guessing he placed some sort of delayed fuse on it and was counting down the time before it blew. In other words, that was Lord Katsua's plan the whole time."

Haze continued clapping her hands. "That was a clever plan on his part," noted Julie, "But Van is just as scary with three able bodies as he is with four. And with Hideo's current condition he…" She wasn't able to finish this sentence however as Froggy cut in. "I told you back in that basement that if there was anything I wouldn't do it would be to doubt my nakama, and that goes double for the captain. I surely can't allow one of our fellow nakama do that either, gero gero."

The fishwoman looked at him for a moment and turned away. Ursa decided to break the sudden seriousness with the crunching of chips. "Whatever, with one of the bodies gone that's one less person he has to deal with, that also makes the other clones weaker since they can't use that guy's body to increase their own abilities."

Back outside Hideo was preparing ton continue the fighting but stopped at the sound of excited shouting behind him. Turning around and looking out over the ocean he caught sight of a familiar sight. "Wait, that's my ship!"

Black frowned and looked at Collin and his men who were dancing on the deck. "Those idiots. I have nothing to do with this, they acted on their own."

"Hideo, we've got problems…" Came the voice of Ursa who had Alana standing next to him. The doors to the City Hall building suddenly crashed inwards as marines began to flood the room along with the Karkade Division. The shipwright scratched his head. "Actually, scratch that, two problems…"

* * *

Alright, I know this chapter was a bit shorter and didn't live up to the hype built up in the last chapter, and I'll apologize for that; though it's really just to get this arc moving towards its ending phases. Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed and will drop a review.

I'm also going to take from Munchlax Jr and ask in this chapter who (if anyone) from the Crimson Storm Pirates could you see in a relationship together? I think I've made small hints in the past before so let's see what you guys think.

Also, if anyone is wondering about Karkade or your memory of them is a bit foggy just go ahead and check out chapter 7.


	28. Their Only Salvation

**Edit: Hey guys, sorry for the long wait, you wouldn't believe what I've been through with internet issues. As a make up for that however, I have a great weekend in store for you. Triple update! So each day this weekend (starting with tonight) I'll be uploading the new chapter I had pretyped for this story during my down time. I wanted to do more than three chapters, but at the same time I wanted to give my other stories equal attention as well, so some sacrifices had to be made. Nevertheless, I hope you guys enjoy and will review each chapter :^D**

Sorry for disappearing for a bit, had Thanksgiving and whatnot plus my internet went out for a bit. For some reason I found this chapter difficult to type, it was odd to say the least. But today I present this epic triple update with new chapters to all 3 of my current stories. Enjoy~

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 28: Wild Western Showdown**

**Their Only Salvation

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**

"Let's end this now!"

Hideo shouted to the Van bodies but instead saw all of them running back inside the building and fighting marines alongside his men. Black grabbed the hands of White and Yellow and suddenly merged back into the full Van body. "Don't let up men, fight your way through and outside. Anyone who makes it to the ship will officially be a member of the Starfall Pirates!"

This seemed to be the morale boost the pirates needed as they suddenly began to fight with more ferocity than previously shown. Roland looked to the pirates in front of him and as one approached to attack him with brass knuckles his simply grabbed the criminal's arm and broke it at the elbow before smacking him to the side. "Giselle, Procne, you two go find the Crimson Storm pirates and bring them back to me alive. Rin, Charlotte, you take care of the Starfall pirates, same rules apply.

"Then what will you be doing, sir?" Gisellse asked as she began to walk away.

"Blocking all possible chance of escape." Suddenly, a tail sprouted from Roland's backside followed by scales covering his entire body. In an instant his transformation was complete and he was now towering above the City Hall building. The pirates could only look up in awe at his new form.

"An ancient zoan user? And what form is that, a T-Rex." The pirate that said this was quickly cut down by the blade of Rin's naginata and hit the floor.

Smiled and moved on to the next. "Much worse than, it's a Giganotosaurus. Much larger and more powerful than a T-Rex."

The marine raised his massive head and roared into the sky with such force that the building began to shake. As pirates attempted to escape all it took was a swing from his tail to send dozen of them flying across the room. Even the winds generated from these swing managed to knock a few people out.

"Pirates, stop this senseless fighting and realize when you are overpowered." Roland said in a beastly tone. Moments later he was hit in the chest by an explosion that caused him to stumble only slightly. This explosion was from a bomb thrown by Hideo who was now on the roof and looking up to his old friend. There was a large hole in the roof, likely where he had entered from and caused by another of his bombs.

"You know what they say, the bigger they are the harder they fall. Besides, this massive size makes you an easier target for my explosions." From below he could see Ursa had shifted to his hybrid form and was calling up to him with Takato on one of his shoulders and Alana on the other, crying. At his side was Haze and Froggy as well.

"Captain, what should we do?"

"First priority is to get Alana out of here. This is too dangerous for her. After that we need to get back to the ship."

Froggy pointed to the gold band around his wrist. "Small problem with that. We still have these things, gero." Hideo nodded, "I'll take care of that. Now go!" looking back to Roland he only saw massive rows of teeth and a snarling tongue headed his way; jumping back down the hole he only barely avoided being eaten alive. The roof wasn't so lucky however as it was smashed to pieces and the parts that weren't eaten came crashing down on the pirates below.

Hideo landed with a heavy thud and rolled to his feet. "Van. We either need to finish this fight or you're taking those damn bracelets off of Haze, Froggy, and Julie!" The opposing captain kicked a marine in the face, stealing his rifle in the process and shooting down several more soldiers.

"Persistent, but now's not the time. If you really want to settle this then help me get to my ship and we'll end this there. Then again, maybe you should worry about getting your own ship back."

Hideo clenched his teeth and went back to the hole in the wall. Looking out over the ocean he could see the Crimson Hammer along with Collin and his men still cheering. "Ursa, get Alana out of here like I said. I'm going after the ship. That's our only chance of getting out of here."

The zoan user nodded and delivered a punch to another marine as Alana continued to cry on his shoulder. "Big brother! Big brother, where are you!"

As hide took his red leather jacket off he prepared to take the lap off the side and into the water but was stopped by Julie. Without a word dove into the water and swam to the ship at an amazing speed. "Julie, below the deck are some levers and a set of pedals, use them to get the ship over here. We need to leave ASAP!" From the water Hideo could see a thumbs up that let him know she heard.

"She's helping us get out of here, gero!" Just above them a large winged figure looked out across the water and to the speeding fishman. It was Giselle. Hideo saw this first and pointed it out to Ursa.

"Got ya, Captain." He set down Alana and Takato and picked up Hideo which seemed to catch the gray haired teen by surprise. "Kuma Hou! (Bear Cannon)" Suddenly, Hideo was launched in the air and in the direction of the marine.

"Wait, what did you do that for! I didn't ask you to throw me!" The Crimson Bomber sighed and suddenly took a hold of her in a bear hug and stopping the woman from flapping her wings and flying.

"Let go of me you fool, you'll kill us both from this high up!" Hideo smiled and only tightened his grip as the two went into a nosedive downward, but instead of heading for land he seemed to be directing them towards the water.

"Not really, I just need to get you in the water and you're as good as useless." Their aerial dive continued until the heavy splash signified they had hit the ocean. Hideo resurfaced and smiled proudly at what he figured was a job well done. Suddenly the body of Giselle however resurfaced as well about twenty feet away from him.

"Wait, you're a devil fruit user, you should be a hammer in the water!" She pulled the veil away from his mouth and revealed the bird beak. In a surprise to Hideo she then let out a horrifying shrieked that made him cringe as his ears were ringing horribly.

The marine shook her head and looked to him. "You humans are always so quick to make assumptions. I never once said I was a devil fruit user. Anyway, the worst you did was soak my feathers and stopped me from flying for a bit. Count yourself lucky that giant lizard wants you brought back alive or else you'd end up being my first human meal in a while."

She then dashed forward in the water; claws extended and ready to tear at his body. _"Damnit, this is bad. I don't have any bombs on me and I'm not much of a fighter to begin with. The water will only hinder me more." _Before Giselle managed to get close however a large explosion hit right behind her and sent the bird woman flying into the air and splashing back in the water a good distance away.

Looking to his side he could see Julie sitting on top of the ship with a cannon to the side of her. The legs of the Crimson Hammer's bull were spinning and propelling the ship even faster than usual. "Wait, if you're up here then who's pedaling below deck?"

"Don't worry, I have that covered," was her only response. Down below the ships deck was a bruised and bloody along with his men. All of them were pedaling as fast as they could, obviously not wanting to suffer another beating. "Haze, look out behind you!"

The fish woman turned around and spotted Simian. "Smekeke, helping the enemy, Julie? The captain won't like this. You'll have to receive the punishment of a traitor, dear." He tried to place one of his arms on her should but it was instead grabbed. Julie followed this up by flinging him over her shoulder and across the deck.

"I'm not a member of that horrible crew. I've already been accepted as a new member of this family and you won't take that away from me. So back off!" She yelled fiercely, but Simian continued to cackle as he pulled out a small remote and aimed it her way. In moment electricity went surging through the fishman's body and she fell to the floor.

"Smekeke, seems like you got that bite back. That same bite you had when we first took you in and before you became the tamed dog I made you to this day. Looks like we should get back to that training."

As he approached he turned the dial up on the remote slightly which made the fishwoman shriek in pain. "Pain will be your teacher for the day, so listen closely girl." Simian continued to walk her way, but suddenly stopped in his tracks. Something felt…different.

Julie slammed her fist into the wood of the deck and was now at a knee. Strangely enough, a grin was on her face. "You know what, you're right. I have lost track of who I used to be. What made me who I am." She was now on both of her feet and was slowly walking the opposing fishman's way.

Simian began to break out in a nervous sweat. "This is impossible! There's no way you should still be moving with all this electricity coursing through your body. No, wait. I have to calm down. This only 60%. Let's see if you can have so much strength when I pick it up to 75%!"

Julie could feel the strain of more electrical energy coursing through her, but didn't slow down. "You broke my spirit and made me the shell of the woman I once was."

"Smekeke, 85%!" He turned the dial once more.

The smile she had been wearing now turned into an angry scowl as she cocked back her right fist. "But now that I'm back, I only have one thing left to say to you…" By this point she was standing only a few inches away from him.

Simian was shaking uncontrollably and it was hard to discern if he was still laughing at this point or crying. "100%!"

"My name is Julie. Remember it until the day you go to your pitiful grave, because I will be the Strongest fishman in all of the seas. Greater than Jimbei and even Fisher Tiger!" Her fist came flying forward like a rocket and sent Simian soaring backwards as it collided with his face and snapped his long nose in half. The four armed doctor hit the water so hard Hideo could've swore he skipped on the surface a couple of times before sinking and resurfacing, unconscious.

Julie heaved a sigh of relief but didn't stop there. Taking hold of the bracelet she began to pull at it causing even more electricity to begin to race through her until it finally ripped free from her wrist. "Wahoo! Go Julie!"

Back in City Hall Ursa, Haze, and Froggy seemed to be struggling. "None of us are back up to strength from thos Davy Back Fight games." Haze said as she barely blocked the sword swing of a marine and pushed him away.

Ursa seemed to be having the hardest time due to protecting both Alana and the semi-conscious Takato. Soon Ursa hit the ground with the two he carried on side of him. The marine who had managed to force to him the ground suddenly pounced, sword at the ready. "Big brother!" The child screamed with all of her might this time.

"I'm right here…" Came the voice of the blue haired teen in ragger clothing. He had blocked the sword with a metal pipe and followed up with a kick to the marine's chest and bashing him across the head. Alana smiled and jumped into the boy's arms, the tears not stopping. Ursa got back on his own feet.

"You still owe me a new guitar, buddy, gero gero!" Froggy joked while regrouping with everyone. Allen simply smiled and tossed the pipe to his side. "I'll be sure to remember that. But right now, I'm going to get Alana out of here and apologize to my dad for the grief I caused."

Haze raised her eyebrow in curiosity. "What caused this sudden change of heart from the mean kid we encountered earlier today?"

Allen's smile faded as he put Alana on his shoulders. "I joined these pirates to be somebody. I was tired of sitting around on this island and my family barely having the money to get by. But this isn't worth it, especially when my sisters is like this and gets involved in dangerous fights just because of me. I'm heading for the exit; the two of us should be able to pass as civilians or hostages."

The Crimson Storm Pirates smiled. "Oh, and here's a thank you for protecting Alana up until this point." He put three golden keys in Haze's hand before disappearing into the crowd and out of the building. The swordsman looked at them for a moment and decided to try the first thing that came to mind. Putting it in the lock on the bracelet the device suddenly popped off and clattered on the floor. Takato followed her example and got his removed as well.

There was suddenly a horrible shaking that caused more of the City Hall Building to collapse. "We need to get out of here, The structural integrity of this place is long gone and it's gonna collapse any second now. Outside Roland was lying on his back with Van, Rena, Kujo, Kurtz and the individual in black. Procne roared in anger as she turned around and realized this as well. "What the hell! They somehow managed to knock down that monster?

With the way to their ship finally open Van led any of the remaining pirates that would follow him outside and to the nearby docks. As they began to board the vessel Kurtz stopped to ask a question. "Captain, how are we getting out of this?"

Rena was already at the helm and steering their way out to the waters. "We're not; we're heading straight for the Crimson Storm's ship and were getting that eternal pose."

As The Crimson Hammer pulled close to the island Julie began to steer in the other direction. "We can't get any closer without hitting the side of the island and the rocks. You're gonna have to jump!" Hideo called from the deck.

Ursa and Froggy were prepared to do this but stopped as Haze blocked their way. "I don't have much energy left, but this should be enough to get all four of us to the ship. Holding her hands out to the direction of the ship, three pink platforms of energy formed. As they did the devil fruit user fell to a knee but was picked up by Ursa.

Using the platforms they managed to leap across safely and landed on the deck. As they did Hideo soon disappeared below deck and into his room. "Julie, we got a key for you to take your bracelet off, gero gero!"

"Don't need it," she said bluntly while flashing her wrist and leading the ship out to sea.

"Where are we going anyway?"

"I have no idea; we just need to get as far away from this island as possible." A few moments later Hideo resurfaced wearing his old clothes complete with the long crimson red coat and black pants. The only remnant of his cowboy outfit was the black hat with red X on the front. Moments later the ship of the Starfall pirates pulled up alongside of them.

Back on the island the Karkade division had regrouped. Roland was back in his human form and getting back on his feet. Not surprising was the fact that Procne was in his face for losing somehow. "I don't know what it is. Those two men, the guy in the green jacket and the one dressed in all black. I've never seen them in the reports of the Starfall Pirates. Despite this, their strength was inhuman and even managed to overpower me in my full transformation."

Charlotte stepped up. "Should we get the ship and go after them then?"

"No, we'll stay here and pick up the left over pirates as well as the injured marines. Lucca has gone ahead after them according to the soldiers still stationed in town."

"Oh, so _he_ finally got a move on? It's a shame I won't be able to see his power first hand. Lucca Santina of the Shichibukai." Came the voice of Rin as she put her weapon away.

Back out on the sea Hideo gave Ursa a tap no the shoulder. "Hey, mind giving me one more toss? I need to get on that ship."

"You need to what?" Haze shouted as she leaned against the railing, still trying to get back some energy. "Everyone already got their bracelets off and we're sailing out of here. There's no reason to keep fighting them.

Without a word Ursa shifted into Hybrid form once again and lifted their captain on to his shoulders. "I have all the reason in the world to fight actually, because I refuse to face utter defeat at their hands. When I win this fight and return on this ship we will have the biggest party the West Blue has ever seen. A party to welcome a new crew member and our entrance into the Grand Line!"

"Kuma Hou!" Ursa swung his arm forward and launched his captain on to the deck of the other ship. He got to his feet and looked to Van who seemed ready for battle as well. Before they started however Hideo turned to Julie and Van to Rena.

"Julie…"

"Lovely Rena…"

Simultaneously they spoke:

"Captain is busy. So steer our ship to the place known as a pirate graveyard, but today will be our only salvation! Full sail for Reverse Mountain and the Grand Line!"

* * *

Alright guys, the Wild Western Town arc is coming to a close, it should only be a few more chapters but there's still a lot left to go as you can see. Stick around and see how things play out!

Also, if anyone is wondering about Alana and Allen I originally had a side plot sort of thing in mind during this arc for them, but recently decided to cut out. Sorry to anyone who was expecting a bit more involvement from them and if their removal from the arc seemed a bit abrupt.

Anyway, hope you had fun, don't forget to review, see you next update.


	29. The United Front: Run The Clock!

**Edit: Alright, second part of my triple update weekend. There's still another one to go however :+D**

Another new chapter for my lovely fans~

In my own personal news, I just beat the second Phoenix Wright game. "Justice for All" Unfortunately I don't know when I'll be able to get the third :(

* * *

**New World Bound**

**Chapter 29: Wild Western Showdown**

**The United Front: Run the Clock!

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**

"Van, this is it!"

Hideo narrowed his eyes on the teen standing across the deck from him. The mismatched man hadn't gotten the chance to grab a new shirt yet and was thus still shirtless with only his scarf covering his shoulders and blowing in the winds of the sea. With their final showdown obviously drawing near, the rest of the Starfall pirates had cleared away and given the two enough room to duke it out.

Despite the tension being so thick in the air around them, Van still found it rather easy to smile and joke. "This should be fun. One question though. Why are we having this fight on my ship of all places?"

Hideo couldn't help but do the same at the sight of this. "Haha, well, your ship is much bigger than mine. Besides, I wouldn't want to blow up my own vessel and crew with my bombers." They stared at each other intently for only a few moments longer before both captains rushed at each other.

Van attacked first with a round kick to Hideo's mid section. As the leg grew close however two more sprang out, one going for his head and the other at the Crimson Bomber's own legs. Hideo was hit and sent sliding across the wooden deck but soon rolled to his feet and tossed a single Crimson Bomber. Van didn't skip a beat and struck the bomb's side and knocked it into the water. The gray haired captain grinded his teeth in frustration and rushed in again.

Back on the Crimson Hammer, Froggy was staring out at a rather daunting sight that they seemed to be quickly approaching. At the mere sight of the thing it seemed that his eyes were about to bulge free from their sockets. "Julie! I know we're trying to escape as fast as the ship can carry us, but why are you steering us straight for that upside down waterfall, gero gero!"

At the sound of this Haze, Ursa, and Takato couldn't help but look up as well. Indeed, just as the doctor had pointed out there was an enormous upward stream of water going up the side of a mountain. It seemed the other two's reactions were practically the same as they jumped to their feet and ran around frantically. Well, everyone but Takato anyway.

Julie clicked her teeth in annoyance and looked at the rest of the crew. "Can you guys quiet down, damnit? You're giving me a headache." A vein of pure anger began to pulsate on the fishwoman's forehead as the rest of the crew stopped in their tracks.

They turned away from her for a moment and got in a huddle. "Um, is it just me or did Julie change ever since she joined us?" Everyone else in the circled nodded at Ursa's comment.

"That's the power of the great Lord Katsua's leadership in effect."

"I'm scared, gero gero! What if this isn't the groovy Julie we thought we knew? Maybe it's one of those Starfall's in disguise, gero gero?"

Haze nodded her head as well. "Or maybe she's gone insane? Until we get this resolved let's go ahead and take over the steering."

They prepared to break up the huddle but all received a punch in the back of the head by the ship's new navigator. "You idiots! If you're going to have a secret huddle to talk about me behind my back, don't do it five inches away!" The rest of the crew looked at each other as if having an epiphany moment which caused Julie to sweat drop.

"Anyway, I'm just back to my good ol' self, thanks to you guys. As for our location. What you're looking at right now is the Red Line and more importantly, Reverse Mountain. That's going to be our entrance into the Grand Line. I can't believe your captain led you this far without knowing something so important." They looked over the water to where Hideo was still fighting. "Anyway, thanks to those goons downstairs pedaling our way through the water we're making pretty good time. We should be hitting that entrance up Reverse Mountain in about ten minutes if you ask me."

Takato's eyes suddenly shifted behind the ship where something ripping through the water could be seen. He stood to his feet, being supported by the railings. "Something's coming…"

"Alright, that's enough warming up." Van said as he split into three bodies once again. Just as before, Orange was still missing from the quartet. "Seems it still hasn't been long enough for that other bastard to return." Black said in an annoyed tone as he looked to the other two clones.

"We can't w-win without Orange. This is b-b-bad." Yellow said while shivering all over, or at least until black started pulling on his hair.

"You talk like that again and you'll be missing some teeth. Got it?" The shy body nodded lightly which caused Black to smile and turn back to Hideo. "You weren't doing so well in our last fight. I hope you've rethought your strategy since then. Wouldn't want this to be too short."

Hideo grinned and put a piece of chocolate in between his lips. He then pulled out a stick of dynamite in between each of his fingers, six in total. "You don't have to worry about me. Candy or explosives, I always come prepared." Tossing each bomb he mad sure two would head out for each Van body.

Yellow shifted his eyes to each explosive and then spoke. "White, duck and roll forward. Black, jump to your right as far as possible. I've already taken into account the length of the fuses, their trajectory and the size of his explosives. Follow my orders and you shouldn't be hit." They both nodded and followed these orders. Yellow also leaped away to avoid the two explosives headed his way.

Just as the clones thought they were in the clear however a second fuse lit up on the backs of each dynamite stick, turning them back around and striking each clone in the back. They all fell to the floor, smoke rising from the burns covering their backs. White was the first body to jump back up and seemed to be smiling for some reason. "Haha, that wasn't so painful! It was actually pretty fun. Let's do it again!"

Black slowly rose back to his own two feet and looked at his oppositely colored counterpart before hitting Yellow in the gut. "You dumbass! You said we wouldn't be hit if we did what you told us!" Yellow fell back to the floor and clutched his stomach. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't realize all of those bombs had some sort of propulsion system. He must've put them on sort of a delayed fuse until the bombs reached their intended targets so they would redirect in case they were avoided.

Hideo smiled proudly. "Made them all by myself. What can I say? In fact, they're new, I should go ahead and name them. Of course, Rocket Bombers would be most appropriate." Black merely growled in return and rushed in, fists at the ready.

"Booyah! Hideo strikes again with one of his awesome bombs!" Froggy shouted after seeing Hideo's attack. Haze laughed in response, but brought up a question as well. "Why didn't he use something like this back when they were fighting on the island though?" The doctor shrugged, but someone did have an answer.

"Back when we got on the ship and left Wild Western Town. Lord Katsua went below deck. Probably to his room for the change back into his original clothes as well as to grab a restock on bombers. Though those Rocket Bombers he just used are only prototypes from what I heard. One of the more successful ones at least."

Haze raised an eyebrow and looked at the marksman. "Prototypes? So that isn't even a complete version of it? And what do you mean by more successful version?"

Takato's eyes narrowed. "As in it's one of the few that hasn't blown up in his face during testing. One of the few that he has gotten far enough to actually work in a battle situation. Though seeing as he's using such an unreliable form of attack in a battle this important must mean he's run low or completely out of his others. Which means he's probably running this whole battle on the success of his uncompleted works."

Haze and Froggy looked at him with a mixed look of shock and worry. Moments later Ursa called down to them from the crow's nest. "Guy's, I don't really know how to say this. But there's a guy riding a silver surfboard and making his way towards us using a giant propeller." He said while looking out over the water with a pair of binoculars.

Julie looked forward to the currently approaching Reverse Mountain. "We still have 6 minutes until we hit that stream. As long as we make it there in time there's no way someone should be able to follow us one something as idiotic as a surfboard."

"Um Julie, I think it's too late." As he said this the figure from the water suddenly jumped on deck. His surfboard and 'propeller' were left behind in the water and seemed to sink into the ocean which made Ursa widen his eyes with surprise. "Why did his surfboard sink? Last I checked those things usually float."

The man that had stepped on to the ship had long blonde hair reaching to his waist and a bit of it obscuring his right eye from view. He wore flowing white and gold robe like clothing that seemed rather expensive to anyone who gazed upon face gave away his young appearance as he seemed to be no older than 25. Other than this he also had sword at his side. His one visible eye began to look each pirate up and down, including Ursa who had climbed back down from the crow's nest.

Suddenly, the man burst into tears and fell to his knees. "Praise the heavens! I've finally found the infamous Crimson Storm Pirates I have been searching for." The crew sweat dropped at the sight of this and weren't sure if they should continue to be at the ready or pity the poor crying man. Suddenly, he leaped back to his feet and began to clap his hands.

"I must say, I was surprised and impressed that you guys and those Starfalls managed to escape Rolly Olly and his little girl group. Though you went on and left the whole island without even letting me know. How rude! Luckily, I managed to catch up without too many problems."

Froggy scratched his head for a moment. "Um, sorry, but, do we know you, gero gero?" The mysterious man was prepared with a response, but stopped at the sight of several more people stepping foot on to the ship. Ursa frowned upon the sight of them. "What are you guys doing here?"

This group included a rather beat up Simian, Kurtz, Rena, Kujo, and a few of the random pirates the City Hall building. Kurtz chuckled lightly, but oddly enough retained a serious face as he gazed at the blonde. "We're here to give you a helping, friend. Besides, captains orders."

Julie seemed to be burning with rage at this. "Get the hell of our ship! Why would he send you over here anyway."

Kurtz's fake eye gleamed in the light for a short moment. "Well, friend. With your previous battle injuries we doubt you'd fare to well against someone like him. In fact, if he took care of you lot and continued on to us, things would be very bad. So our best bet is to team up against this man. Lucca Santina of the Shichibukai."

At the sound of this the jaws of every member of the Crimson Storm crew dropped. Ursa was the first to begin speaking again. "A-a-a Shichibukai? What the heck is one of those doing in the West Blue?"

"No time to worry about such trivial things you losers!" Rena cried while pulling out two pistols. "Right now just focused on holding this guy off until we hit Reverse Mountain. I know we had differences not too recently, but right now we need to put that crap aside for both of our good!"

Julie stepped away from the helm and directed Takato to take over. As she walked past him she handed her leather coat his way. "Hold my jacket." She spoke while cracking her knuckles. "Seeing as those two are putting their pride as captains of their own respective crews on the line in that fight, it seems they want us to take care of things here."

Lucca looked at all of the pirates standing in his way and continued smiling gleefully. "It's been a while since I've had a chance to have some fun." Pulling out the sword handle from the sheath, everyone was shocked by the fact that it had no blade attached to the end. Only moments later did and odd silver metal begin to extended from where the blade should have been and took the form of a katana.

Without the uttering of another word, the Shichibukai dashed forward and sliced away at several pirates. Kurtz and Haze being amongst them as well as some of the random new members of Starfall. They fell to the floor, clutching their fresh sword wounds.

Back at the helm, Takato was beginning to sweat at the sight of the battle happening right in front of him. _"His movements…they were so fast that even my eyes couldn't keep track of his attacks. This is the power of a Shichibukai? This is insane! And why am I shaking? Is this the emotion called fear? An emotion that didn't even appear in me when attacked by that man's devil fruit? We have to get rid of this man, before it's too late. But there's still four minutes left. Can we even last that long?"_

"High Stakes: Brick Bomb!" Black suddenly shouted as he lifted up White. Yellow's and black's body seemed to suddenly grow a bit large and fatter while white's did the opposite. Black's arm then gained a large amount of muscle as he tossed the separate body like some sort of javelin.

Hideo was prepared to dodge but in midflight the body's size suddenly increased to more than it was originally and slammed headfirst into his gut. The force was enough to knock the wind out of the captain as well as making him spit up a bit of blood. White landed with a grin, but Hideo on the other hand was knocked to the ground and sent rolling across the deck and didn't manage to come to a stop until hitting the ship's railings.

He got back up to his feet and pulled down his goggles over his eyes. In each hand was a single bomb. "This one first! Blade Bomber!" He tossed a small sphere that split open midflight and sent out knives in all direction including back at Hideo. Some managed to stab into his arms and legs.

Yellow opened hit mouth to give out the dodging command but Hideo was quicker. "And Flash Bomber!" The second bomb in his hand was tossed to the ground and exploded in a pillar of light. Yellow suddenly fell to the ground as his sensitive eyes were hit. Black and White were a bit dazed as well and were easy targets for the previous blades heading their way. Hideo was seeing spots as well, but was nowhere near as harmed as the Vans.

"That should leave Yellow out of commission long enough for me to finish this." Black and White seemed to be recovering and were now pulling the blades out of their limbs.

"You will pay for that you gray haired piece of shit!" The two Vans rushed his way and began to assault the Crimson Bomber with a flurry of punches and kicks that slowly wore down his body. Black eventually managed to grab the Crimson Bomber by his legs and began to swing him around, building up momentum as he did so.

Hideo wouldn't allow him to finish this maneuver however as he used one of the remaining blades stuck in his body from the earlier used bomber and threw it into Black's chest. This slowed him down enough for the gray haired captain take control of the situation and twist his body with enough force to force Black to lose his balance and hit the floor. He didn't stop here though, using the built up momentum, Hideo continued spinning on the heel of his foot after being let loose and delivered a straight punch to White's face.

As White was sent rearing back, Black pushed off the ground with his hands and aimed a kick towards Hideo's face that the Crimson Bomber managed to block with on of his arms. Upon impact however was the sound of a loud snap.

Back on the Crimson Hammer Takato looked with horror as the entire crew was lying on the floor at the feet of Lucca. They were all still conscious, but with the Davy Back Fight, battle against the marines, and now this, none of them were I any condition to keep going. The only person standing was Kujo, who amazingly didn't have a scratch on him yet and managed to hold his own against the man.

Lucca smiled. "I wouldn't expect to meet someone like you here in the West Blue Kujo."

"I could say the same for you."

The Shichibukai scratched his head and looked over to the ship where Hideo and Van's fight was happening. His eyes were more focused on the individual in all black however. "I should've known if you were here then his main lap dog would be as well. Just what are you two up to?" Before the sword user cold get a response Kujo rushed in with his bare fist ready.

Takato could only continue watching at their fight as well as Reverse Mountain. "Only two minutes left…"

As both sides slowly recovered from these attacks Hideo couldn't help but look up at the vertical mass of water still drawing closer to them. Next he stared at his right arm that hung limply at his side.

"_Looks like my right arm is fractured, usable still, but definitely not in good shape. On top of that is the fact our time is running out. I'll have to end this with my strongest and most dangerous bomber yet…"

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_

Alright guys, that's the end to another New World Bound chapter. Hoping you liked it. Next chapter will be the end of this arc (the longest arc so far might I add)

I'd also like to ask you guys about the movie. There are two important questions I need answered by you guys or I'll either do it in the way I choose or just not do it at all. The first question is if you want the movie to be all one enormous chapter (like an actual movie) or separate chapters like the rest of the story is? And the second is if you want the movie to be canon to the story or not. And by that I'm asking if you want them to have some relation with the actual story or just be a side thing (like the actual One Piece movies are. Having no real effects on the real story)

Alright, thanks for reading, and I hope you'll stick around for the exciting conclusion~


	30. A Decisive Finish!

**Edit: Alright, jope you guys enjoyed the triple update weekend. As requested I'll make the movie a single chapter and non-canon. More information on that will be provided next chapter. Enjoy~**

Another update coming your way, but more importantly: the epic conclusion to the Wild Western Showdown arc.

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 30: Wild Western Showdown**

**A Decisive Finish! Blast Off Into the Grand Line!

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**

"Captain Van, there's only a couple of minutes left!"

Black looked to the man handling the helm in Rena's absence and nodded. Hideo also heard this and quickly put both hands into his coat. _"I'm only going to get one shot at this. I have to make it count." _Not wasting a moment, Hideo jumped into the air and pulled out four more bombs. Two were tossed at White and the other two at Black. The Van bodies looked at each other and jumped away.

"We're not falling for the same trick again; another rocket attack." As the two of them moved out of the way the secondary fuses lit up and began to redirect the bombers, but in different directions than what was expected.

"Actually, seems like you still did fall for it." As White and Black looked back they could see all four of the bombs heading for the still blinded Yellow. It was too late to do anything about this and within the moment there was a powerful explosion that rocked the ship. Hideo grinned at a job well done, but his face deflated moments later when the smoke cleared.

Although his body was burned and smoking, Yellow was still there, but there was something different about him. His body seemed to have gained a huge amount of fat and turned him into an immobile blob. Looking to Black and White now, Hideo soon had his answer as to why. The two of them had gotten the opposite effect and had gotten so thin that their bones were easily visible.

The Crimson Bomber growled under his breath and charged at them while the Van bodies regained their original shapes. Once in range, White aimed a sweeping kick at Hideo's ankles that the Crimson Bomber avoided by jumping above him. Black was quick to follow this up however and managed to grab him by the throat in midair and slam the teen hard into the deck.

As he struggled to break free from this grip White approached and on of his fists into the air. Moments later it seemed to triple in size as one of Yellow's arms and Black's other arm (the one not choking Hideo) shrunk in size. "This has been a really fun game, but Blacky said we have to finish you."

As the fist came down toward his head like an oversized sledgehammer, Hideo barely managed to reach into his coat and pull out a white stick of dynamite with a red X across the side. "Air…Bomber v2: Cyclone Bomber." As this stick was snapped in half a massive gust of wind was released and pushed all three of them in different direction as well as taking a bit of toll on their bodies.

Hideo rolled back to his feet immediately afterwards but was shocked to see that Yellow was standing right in front of him. "My v-vision's back…" Hideo managed to pull out the first thing in his coat he could get his hands on while sidestepping the Van's attack.

"Bombchaku!" He screamed in an over the top fashion much like one would hear in an old Kung Fu movie. As the ending stick of dynamite struck Yellow in the back of the head it burst into a compact explosion that sent the doppelganger to the ground with a heavy thud. Moments later the body began to fade into thin air as well. "Haha, I told those guys my Bombchaku wouldn't kill them."

"Damnit, Yellow is out now too. There's only a minute left too. White, get off your lazy ass, we're about to finish this." Hideo turned to see that the ship was growing even closer to the entrance gate to go into Reverse Mountain and pulled out a small crimson red sphere with a hazard symbol crudely drawn into it as well as a red X on the other side.

"_Sorry about this Takato. Looks like I have no choice but to use this." _

_**Sometime between Toroa and Wild Western Town**_

Hideo stepped out of his room with his clothing covered in fire and immediately hit the floor and started rolling. Soon enough his frantic behavior had put out the flames. Reaching into his coat he pulled out a chocolate bar and sighed with relief. "At least this is fine."

Takato stepped out of the smoking room next and said bluntly, "Lord Katsua. Your hair is still on fire." The pirate captain leaped up and began spinning on his head like a top and finally managed to put out the only remaining flame.

"Gah! My hair! Good thing I bought this awesome cowboy hat, wouldn't want anyone to see this." He began to rub at the burned away patch of hair while getting back on his feet. Looking at the sleeve of his coat he could see that it had been completely blown away by the explosion. Takato's eyes shifted from the room and now back to Hideo.

"Lord Katsua, that bomb seems hazardous to your health. And as your servant I can't allow you to risk your life by using it."

The Crimson Bomber glanced at Takato before looking down to the floor. "I can understand your concern. So I won't use it unless-"

"No, don't use it at all. The chances of self inflicted harm are exponentially greater than all of the bombers we've been experimenting with." Hideo only continued to look at the floor as the events that had openly happened days earlier on Toroa ran through his mind.

_**Present**_

As both Black and White approached Hideo looked at the baseball sized bomb in the palm of his hand and smiled. "You know, Van, maybe you were right when you said that we were alike in some ways. Like you I'm a risk taker, if I wasn't then I wouldn't be doing dangerous things like using bombs or even sailing as a pirate. I think that's also why I can't stand to lose here." Hideo ran forward as well. With his good arm he managed to block a punch from Black and with his fractured one he pulled back and prepared to slam the sphere into the opposing captain's chest.

"Normally an impact explosive would be thrown, but I can't risk you avoiding it or missing. Crimson Inferno!" Black's eyes widened just before the bomb was slammed into his chest and burst into a fiery explosion that seemed to make the whole ship jump.

Takato looked to the Starfall's vessel and muttered to himself, "Lord Katsua…"

Once the smoke had cleared one would see that the ship was now covered in flames and charred. The few pirates that had remained conscious through the course of the battle looked to the 'battlefield' with anticipation. Both captain seemed to be on the ground and not moving while covered in horrible burns. The pirates looked at each other for a moment until one slowly approached the downed captains.

"I don't think either of them will be getting up and it's been more than ten counts." The others looked at him and shrugged. "There's only about twenty more seconds until we hit Reverse Mountain. I guess we should call it a tie?" At the sound of this Van's eyes shot open. His body was now back to its original state with both black and white hair as well as eyes.

"No, I will not stand for a tie. I will not fall into the gray." Hideo's eyes managed to open up as well. "The same goes for me. From the start we agreed this battle would have a winner and a loser."

They both shakily got to their feet, neither captain looking to be in good enough condition to move let alone stand or fight. As they glared at each other, something odd happened. Both teens began to laugh. "You know Katsua. You're definitely full of surprises. I guess this was a bet I just couldn't win…" The mismatched captain took one final breath before falling to the ground and slipping into unconsciousness.

Hideo looked down and just could stop laughing. "Seems like that last attack completely shattered my arm. But more importantly… I WON!" He shouted loud enough that someone could swear the entire West Blue heard his victory cry.

The fallen pirates on the Crimson Hammer looked over to the still flaming ship and had mixed responses.

"Haha, that big show off, he just had to finish his fight with some flashy explosion." Ursa joked.

"Way to go, Hideo!" Haze said to herself.

"That dumb ass lost the fight! I'll kill him when we get back!" Rena growled as Kurtz just laughed lightly to himself. "I'm impressed, Friend. I didn't think he had what it took to beat Van."

"That explosion was more than groovy, or far out. I can't even find the words to properly express such a battle, gero gero!" Julie smiled as well, but seemed a bit shocked at the same time. "I always thought Van was some sort of monster, but I guess the real monster here is that guy."

Takato's lips seemed to turn into crooked sort of smile for an instant before returning to his flat line expression. "Everyone, grab on to something. We're about to hit Reverse Mountain."

At the sound of this all of the pirates managed to get a hold of some stable part of the ship just before it hit the powerful upward stream of water and sending the ship almost completely vertical. Kujo, in the midst of fighting Lucca, barely managed to get a hold of something in time one the ship rocketed up the stream. The Shichibukai was at first thrown back by the powerful thrust, but managed to get a grip on the ship's mast.

The Starfall vessel was right behind the Crimson Hammer and hit the stream as well. Hideo was tossed back much like Lucca, but got a hold of the railings with his good arm. Looking to the side however the Crimson Bomber could see that Van still hadn't regain consciousness and was about to fall off the back of the ship. Acting on instinct, he first reached for the captain's hand and just barely missed. Fortunately he managed to get a good grip on the teen scarf billowing behind him.

This caused both Captain to scream out in pain. "Gah! My broken arm!" As Van dangled by only his scarf he began to flail around wildly.

"What the heck are you doing, trying to lynch me?" He shouted as the scarf strangled him. Hideo ignored these comments however and focused on keeping his grip as the ship continued to sail upward. Large amounts of water managed to douse the flames created from the earlier explosion. "Just be happy I'm even doing this. It feels like my arm is about fall off."

"What the hell were you thinking with using that bomb anyway? If it weren't for all this water on Reverse Mountain you could've burned the ship and the both of us to ashes." Van Managed to loosen the scarf to a more acceptable level before looking up to see a black shadow moving from place to place on the ship. It finally stopped after taking hold of something nearby and hanging from it right next to Hideo. It was the man dressed in black and had been with Kujo earlier.

"Ryoku, I thought I sent you all to the other ship to take care of that annoyance? Oh well, just give me a hand here." The man now identified as Ryoku silently shook his head and used his free hand to reach into Hideo's coat and pull something out. It was the eternal pose that he had wagered earlier in the Davy Back Fight. Van's face twisted into a scowl at the sight of this. "I should've known not to trust you."

Ryoku said nothing as he pocketed the navigation device into one of his pouches. "It's much too late for that now." He pulled out a small den den mushi and spoke into it. "Kujo, our mission is complete. Let's go."

Kujo seemed to catch on to this from the Crimson Hammer and frowned. "I hope you don't mind if I take a little souvenir with me." He looked down to Lucca who was still holding on to the mass and let go of what he was holding on to. As the pirate fell he slammed his fist into the base of the mast and managed to cause the entire thing to splinter away from the ship taking it as well as both men away with them.

Hideo looked up to see the massive pillar of wood falling back down the mountain. "Hey, isn't that part of my ship!" Ryoku looked up and leaped on to the mast as well as it continued to descend down the mountain and eventually disappear from sight altogether. Once both vessels had reached the top and hit calm waters once again Hideo let go of Van's scarf and feel to the floor, his eyes slowly closing…

When his eyes opened again the Crimson Bomber found himself lying in a bed and looking up at the ceiling. "Hey look, he's finally waking up." Hideo could hear the familiar sound of something crunching. Slowly his eyes traced to the source of the voice which was Ursa eating a bag of chips.

There was more though, in fact every member of the crew was in his room and staring at him. Most of the crew was covered in a few bandages though as Hideo attempted to move he noticed his broken arm was in a cast while the rest of his body was covered head to toe in bandages. "What am I doing here? Last I remember I was holding on to Van on the way up Reverse Mountain."

Froggy approached and began to look over his body for a moment. "Actually, you've ben out cold for the past four days. You've got some kind of crazy stamina to be able to fight as well as you did in that fight against Van, gero gero."

"Yeah, that stupid four armed fishman said you would never wake up, but we knew it would take more than that to put you out of commission captain." Haze added in.

"Good to see our mummy of a captain managed to wake up." Julie commented while punching Hideo in the arm making the captain shout in agony while nearly jumping out of his bed. "Haha, sorry, guess I don't know my own strength."

"So I've really been out for four days?" Hideo asked and the rest of the crew nodded. Froggy looked over a few papers and handed them to the gray haired teen who just looked them over with a confused looked.

"Let's see, after we got you back I did a complete check up. You suffered third degree burns, internal bleeding, organ damage, and somehow managed to break every single bone in your arm…" As Froggy continued speaking Hideo only rolled out of the bed and grabbed a set of crutches leaning against the wall while heading out the room.

"Lord Katusa, where are you going?" The captain didn't say a word until he managed to reach the deck and looked out across the waters to find that they were alone in the middle of the vast ocean. "I guess the Starfall pirates left."

The rest of the crew joined him shortly afterward. Haze was the first to respond. "Yeah, they left the day after we reached the Grand Line..."

_**Flashback**_

Then entirety of both crews (with the exception of Hideo) stood on their respective ships. Van looked out to the Crimson Storm pirates and smiled wildly much like he had done so many times before during the entirety of the Davy Back Fight. Much like Hideo, he had sustained major injuries in their fight and had to be supported by several other pirates just to stand. "Seems like Katsua still hasn't come to. Oh well, I think it's about time we part ways anyway."

Julie looked to the crew and spat. "Good riddance too."

Van frowned for a moment and looked to Simian who seemed to be on the verge of cracking up into one of his fits of maniacal laughter. It seemed his captain's glare was enough to stop this in its tracks though. He looked to the black and white fishwoman and sighed. "I know you probably won't forgive me, but no hard feelings, right?"

Julie crossed her arms and said nothing. "But I even got you guys a nice gift to make up for this whole thing." He pulled out a small brown box and tossed it across the water. Ursa managed to catch it and raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

Van now directed Rena to steer the ship in a different direction. As the Starfall vessel began to pull away Van only had a few words left to say. "If you ever need to find us then that box should have everything you need. And when your captain wakes up, tell him that he'd better be ready for our rematch. Risk takers like us aren't satisfied with just a single game of chance."

_**End Flashback**_

"That was all he said before they left."

Hideo nodded and turned to face his crew. "So what was in the box?"

Ursa pulled out a small scrap of paper with the word "Van" written on it. Half of the name was colored in black while the other was white. Before Hideo had the chance to ask what it was Takato chimed in. "It's a Vivre Card. The paper will basically tell us where to go if we ever want to find Van again."

Julie then flashed her wrist which had a small glass sphere tied to it like a watch. At the center of it was a compass needled that was pointing in the direction the ship was currently headed. "He also gave us a log pose. It's practically a necessity if you want to survive in the Grand Line."

At the sight of this Hideo remembered what happened back on the ship with the Eternal Pose and Ryoku. _"Why is that thing so important? Important enough for Van to risk the entire game and for those two mysterious guys to come after it."_

"Something wrong, Cappy?" Ursa looked to Hideo who shook away the thoughts of the fight and simply smiled.

"No, it's nothing. Besides, I think it's time we move on to the next order of business." The rest of the crew looked at him with surprise.

"We're going to party the way only the Crimson Storm Pirates know how!"

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Well, hope you guys enjoyed the Wild Western Town arc as much as I did writing and planning it. Though there were a few things I wanted to do at the start that changed along the way, I think I like the way it turned out better than the original plans.

Next chapter the crew will get to relax and party for a bit. Don't forget to review and whatnot and I'll see you next chapter~


	31. An Odd Message

New chapter, hope everyone enjoys~

Also, fun question sort of thing like Munchlax Jr does at the start of his chapters. Once the movie is done which character from the crew would you most like to see an arc focused around? I don't mind who you choose really since I have an idea in mind for almost all of them, so just give your opinions and I'll see what I can do.

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 31: Wild Western Finish**

**An Odd Message

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**

"Good to see that everyone's here."

Hideo spoke to the crew as they sat at a table in the kitchen on board the Crimson Hammer. He was still covered in bandages and was actually supporting himself with crutches by this point. It seemed like they'd be having a short meeting of some sort before the party got moving.

"We're on a ship in the middle of a vast and dangerous ocean. Where else would everyone be?" Julie commented with a hint of sarcasm that got her a short glare from Hideo as he continued. "I figured I'd at least tell everyone what the next course of action is since we reached the Grand Line." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a bit of parchment that had been rolled up.

The rest of the crew seemed to be surprised at the sight of this and looked on with anticipation. "I thought the plan was to try and find One Piece so you could Take Over the World, gero gero." Froggy said while leaning back in his seat. Plum, his blue amphibian companion was seen picking up on his Z's on the doctor's shoulder, but Kiwi and Mango were nowhere to be seen. Hideo simply shook his head in response to this however.

"No, a dream I've had since I was a boy. A dream that's far greater than my goal of reaching One Piece!" By this point he had really managed to gain their interest in the subject at hand. Ursa stopped eating for long enough to get out a few words. "Well, come on. Don't just leave us in suspense like this. Let's hear what it is."

The pirate captain grinned sheepishly as he unrolled the parchment and laid it flat across the table for all eyes to see. Everyone's eyes were immediately upon the thing. In actuality it turned out to be a map, a poorly drawn map one would surely add. It was colorful and seemed to be done in Crayola. If anyone who read it dared to squint hard enough and risk permanent blindness trying to discern the letters they would see that the top read: "Candy Island!"

Even now Hideo's smile was nowhere near fading, but the rest of the crew seemed to be skeptical. Well, the rest of the crew with exception of Ursa was skeptical anyway. In a moment's notice he had snatched up the map and was staring in disbelief. There was silence for a few short moments before Haze spoke up. "Umm, what's this supposed to be?" She figured she knew the answer already, but it was best to at least give him a chance to explain, right?

"That my blade wielding friend is the land where dreams are made of and the land where the land is made of sugar. I will not leave the Grand Line until we hit this island, Candy Island!" He snatched his handmade map away from Ursa and began to point to various spots on the map. "Here's the candy Ferris Wheel, the Candy Forest, the Candy Lake…," as he continued to go down the list a line of drool hung from Ursa's face that nearly touched the floor.

In a moment's notice he was at his captain's side. "Captain Katsua, I will follow you to the ends of the Earth to find so grand of an island!" Takato pulled out his bow and a single arrow and glared at Ursa, who seemed to be trying to take away his job as the teen's right hand man. Froggy was next to join the group and began to strum away on shiny new banjo.

"The place of dreams, the place that's dandy

I can't believe it, it's an island of candy~" He began to sing and woke up Plum who immediately began to sing as well, or perhaps croak was the better word to describe it. "I will not hesitate to go such a groovy place either, gero gero."

This only seemed to leave the two females of the crew who had not moved from their previous positions. Julie crossed her arms and frowned while Haze could only smile nervously as she seemed to be stuck in the middle of the dispute. "Are the four of you honestly that dense?" Julie scolded them from her seat. "Do I really need to go into detail as to the impossibility of an island made of candy existing?"

The four boys with exception of Takato pouted and looked away. "Duh, it's obviously a magic island. It wouldn't be special if it wasn't magic." This seemed to be the last straw for Julie as a vein began to pulsate on her forehead. She grabbed one end of the table and flipped the entire thing out of pure rage and annoyance. It was at this point that Haze stepped back into view and dropped a barrel in between the opposing sides.

"Hey look what I found, wouldn't be a party without some of this, right?" Indeed, it definitely wouldn't be a party without the booze. This was more than enough to get the crew off the topic of Candy Island as they began to drink and rejoice. Even Hideo (who hated alcohol) got a few drinks and was suffering from their after effects.

The Crimson Bomber was now standing on top of the table and doing some clumsy dance that eventually led to him falling off and hitting the floor. The rest of the crew began to laugh. Ursa began to nudge Haze's shoulder. "When should we tell him that we decided to replace his drinks with non alcoholic?"

The sword user simply shrugged and replied, "Don't worry about it and just let him have his fun. Everyone seems to be having a nice time." Hideo was slowly rising back to his feet and preparing for his next show.

Takato was propped up against one of the walls and simply watched as everyone else enjoyed themselves, his usual flat line expression spread across his face. In a moment's notice Haze was at his side with a cup in her hand that she put into the boy's hand. The arrow user simply shook his head and attempted to give it back. "Sorry, I don't drink. It would only dull my senses and I need every bit of strength to continue protecting Lord Katsua."

Haze rejected his return of the drink however. "Takato, loosen up, you worry too much. In case you forgot, we're a crew, so there's no need for you to go around carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders alone. We're here as well." He seemed to look into the cup and consider it a moment, but changed his mind in a moment's notice.

Hideo looked over to the two of them and growled at Takato in an odd drunken frenzy. "As your captain…or something…I order you to drink it!" It seemed like now the boy had no other choice and managed to finish the entire cup in less than ten seconds. It was obvious that a slight buzz had come over him as an incomplete smile spread across his face.

Haze smiled. "If only you smiled more often. It actually looks nice on you." The Marksman's face went red for an instant and caused him to look away. Haze didn't manage to catch sight of this however as she had already regrouped with the rest of the crew.

After about half an hour or so of good times, the crew decided to part. Julie and Takato stood on the deck discussing future plans while in the kitchen it seemed Ursa and Froggy seemed to have a conversation of their own going. "Um, so what exactly is it you wanted to talk with me about?"

Froggy closed the door behind him as he entered the room and began to scan the room with his eyes. Ursa did the same simply out of curiosity of what was going on, but when he looked back he could see the doctor down at his feet, almost as if he were praising him. The zoan user sweat dropped and backed away. "Is there something I should know about?"

Froggy began to look away as he said the next few words. His voice came out in mere whisper that made Ursa ask the boy to repeat himself. "I said I want you to teach me, gero gero." The Shipwright's expression now shifted from embarrassment to outright confusion over just what Froggy was talking about and what was going on. "Please, you have to, gero gero!" He was groveling at his feet once more and Ursa was only growing more and more freaked out by the moment.

"I don't really know much about anything except for working on ships. I don't know what you'd have me teach you."

The turquoise haired teen jumped to his feet and aimed an accusing finger Ursa's way. "Don't try to humor me; I've seen you these past few days since we got over the Red Line. The way you always flirt with Julie." This accusation made the shipwright's emotions do a complete three sixty as his face was overcome by a bright red blush.

"The w-w-way I flirt with her? It's the other way around. I s-swear!" He stammered and accidentally bumped into the counter top in his flustered movements. Froggy didn't seem to be buying it yet though.

"Come on, gero. I'm not asking for much, I just want you to teach me how be a ladies man like you for Julie." Ursa sighed, he honestly had no idea how to be a ladies man, when it came to girls he was about as clueless as Froggy was, but then again, his nakama was in need. It wasn't exactly a dire situation, but he felt he had to help out his friend. The boy put on a strong look regardless of how fake it was and put a bit of bass in his voice. "Fine, I will teach you. Stay under my wing and you shall have any girl you desire."

Froggy smiled and began to cry tears of joy as he shook Ursa's hands. The shipwright sweat dropped once again. _"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…"_

Below deck, Hideo and Haze were walking up from one of the lower levels of the ship. The two still seemed to be laughing their heads off. "I had been wondering how we were still sailing when our mast had been taken out on the way up Reverse Mountain. So Julie has really been forcing those guys to pedal the Hammer's 'legs' for the past few days straight. So cruel…." Even though the men they were referring to had been enemies only a few days ago he had to feel at least somewhat sorry for them. He shivered at the thought of Julie putting him through the same hell as Collin and his men.

"It should only be temporary though. At least until we find an island and can replace our old one." As they continued down the hall Hideo began to scan with his eyes. He wasn't quite sure why, but he could've swore he heard something.

"Oh yeah, what's up with the skirt? You never seemed like the type to wear that sort of thing, but you did during the Davy Back Fight and again now," Hideo tried to strike up conversation to get his mind off the noises. The red head frowned in response.

"Yeah, I honestly hate wearing skirts, but I kind of ruined my good clothes between fights and a few training incidents. I honestly packed these without the intention of ever using them, but guess it was a good choice after all." Hideo laughed a bit which got him looks from the sword user.

"Sorry, I wasn't laughing at you; I just thought it was funny. Besides, I think that skirt looks great on you," Hideo responded while still hobbling down the hall with his crutch. Haze turned to him and prepared to say something, but just then the two of them could hear a croaking noise on the floor. It was Froggy's red frog, Mango. They both knew that the amphibian would be here for only one reason, not surprisingly, the red frog was looking directly upward and into Haze's skirt. "Pervert!" She shouted in fury and delivered an energy enhanced punch to her captain's chest.

The blow sent the already injured teen flying backward and into the wall as Haze stomped off. He groaned in pain and struggled to get back on his feet. "Why did I get punched? It's not even my frog!" Once he had managed to recover however, Hideo climbed back out on deck where everyone else was looking at something.

"Yo, Crimson Bomber, you might want to check this out." Julie called to him while tossing a newspaper in the teen's direction. He nearly fell from his crutches while trying to catch it, but managed and unrolled the paper. It seemed like the crew had already went and circled the part he was supposed to read.

_"To Hideo Katsua and the Crimson Storm Pirates in West Blue. My name is Roshi Narusegawa and you may not know me yet Crimson Bomber, but you will soon enough. When I become the Pirate King! I've read articles of you declaring that you'll take over the world and find the legendary One Piece. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that treasure's all mine! I'm gonna succeed Gold Roger and you won't! Consider me your newest rival, and let's meet in the Grand Line! I look forward to it."_

He simply shrugged and put the paper down. "I don't know what the heck I did to get a rival, but this should be fun!" Hideo punched his fist into the open palm of his broken hand that was still in a cast. It didn't take long for the pain to shoot through his arm like needles however and he yelped in agony.

"Just hold on Hideo gero," Froggy said taking the newspaper back from his captain. "It also says here that he's been the apparent cause of a lot of trouble in North Blue. Just look, all of his crewmembers and himself have bounties. His is actually higher than yours, gero gero." Julie now pulled out the stack of posters and handed them to Hideo who flipped through. They seemed to be known as The North Star Pirates.

"Wanted Dead or Alive"

Jezebel "Glass Bead" Monet. 10 million beli

Daisuke "Witch Doctor" Susumu. 12 million beli

Hikari "Blood Demon" Kitaoji. 19 million beli

Cheri "Poison" Grove. 26 million beli

Oda "Pirate Gentleman" Penn. 31 million beli

Roshi "Cobalt Star" Narusegawa. 35 million beli

It was an impressive line up to say the least and as Hideo looked up from the wanted posters his eyes seemed to be sparkling. "Whoa, these guys look pretty awesome. Wish I had a badass crew like this." Sure enough, he was on the ground and covered in several lumps within moments of saying that. "Geez, can't you guys take a joke. And what's up with everyone is this beat up the cripple day or something?"

Takato seemed like he was already preparing for full on war however as he began to load up his arrows. "I'm sorry this had to happen, Lord Katsua, I'll dispose of them all as soon as possible." Hideo got up and quickly calmed down the marksman.

"There's nothing to get worked up over. Just seems like some friendly competition. Besides, chances are we'll never run into this guy anyway."

Ursa picked up the paper now and began to read over it with Froggy at his side. "So what are you gonna do, Cappy?" Ursa asked. Hideo simply shrugged and replied, "Nothing. Not much I can do at the moment about some guy with a star tattoo." Froggy then spoke up again, "It seems he also said that Crimson Storm is a dumb name, gero."

"I'LL BLOW HIM UP!" This had definitely ended up being the breaking point for the Crimson Bomber as it took Takato, Ursa, and Froggy to hold back his burning rage. Julie seemed to be fixated on one poster in particular though.

"Cheri Grove, eh? Seems like this 'rival' crew might be more fun than I expected. There's no way I'd throw away a chance to fight one of the strongest fighters of the Grove family."

Once Hideo had finally calmed down he began to speak to his crew again. "I'll show this guy! Next island we land on I'm blasting it into space! There's no way they can get a bounty higher than what we'll get if we do that."

It was Julie's turn to punish her captain now, "Dizzy Punch." She quickly struck at the pressure point in his neck and caused him to fall to the floor. "Stop being an idiot already." The rest of the crew simply began to laugh. Hideo didn't mind though, he looked out at the huge ocean in front of them and began to laugh as well. _"The adventure has only just begun…"_

On an unknown Island in the Grand Line two men were seen speaking in an office. One of the two sat behind a desk and had his face obscured by the shadows. The second seemed to be shaking uncontrollably. The hidden individual then spoke, "You mind telling me that again? I didn't quite catch it the first time…"

"I s-s-said, that the mission was a f-f-failure, S-s-sir." He barely managed to get out as his body continued to shake as if someone had just pulled him out of the freezer. The man behind the desk chuckled lightly, but with obvious fakeness.

"That's what I thought you said…" Outside the room a man in a suit and shades could hear earsplitting screams of terror for a few moments before all was silent once again. He knocked on the door and proceeded to enter. The room that had been pure white just a moment ago was now a fresh red from splattered blood. The man in shades seemed to be unfazed by this. "I'll call the clean up crew immediately, Sir."

"While you're out, how about you find me some competent workers as well."

* * *

Alright, hope you guys enjoyed. I originally planned on this being just a fun relaxation sort of deal, but in the end I managed to hint at several future plots all in one chapter. In the end, I feel it came out pretty good. Also, for anyone who doesn't already, go shoot over to my buddy, Munchlax Jr's channel and check out his story, Beyond the Sea. From there you can see the entirety of the North Star Pirate Crew and their antics. It's a great story, so I hope you'll give it a chance.

Now for a few announcements. First is about the next update, which will be the movie. It seemed you guys wanted it to be one big chapter, so I'll have it done as soon as possible. Of course, since it'll be so much it'll take a while.

Next thing also has to do with updates. I'm not entirely sure of how updates will be working for the next few weeks due to moving to a new house soon. If you guys have any questions though just shoot them at my inbox. I can still take care of that with my cellphone.

And things to look forward to" A character poll sometime in the future on my profile page, you'll hear more about this as the time draws near though. An SBS sort of thing like Oda does so that you guys can ask questions (either in PM or reviews) and I'll answer them here. Character information at the end of chapters (just fun side things like favorite foods, color and animal that represents them, birthday, etc.)

Alright, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed and that you'll review. See you guys next update!


	32. New World Bound: The Movie!

Alright guys, the long awaited movie chapter has finally appeared. Hope you enjoy. I'll say right now that this is actually based on a pretty popular NES game so let's see who can figure out which, shall we? Even if based on a game series I did go ahead and make my own plot for this so it wouldn't be a total rip and a bit more fun. I'll talk more about this at the end of the chapter though. Like previously mentioned, this has no actual effect on the story, so anything that happens here is pretty much nonexistent to the crew though I may do some sort of cameo to the movie later on if I want or it's requested.

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**New World Bound Special**

**Chapter 32: New World Bound: The Movie!**

**The Madman of the Steel Fortress

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The moon hung high in the early morning sky as the Crimson Hammer rocked back and forth in the gentle waters of the Grand Line. At this time the crew was all asleep, they knew their current destination, but the journey there would still take at least several days more. However, in the silence of the night three shadowy figures moved silently about going back and forth through the halls of the Crimson Storm Pirate's ship.

"Hehehe. This should do it…" The first voice spoke while placing a rather large object in front of one of the bedroom doors. The other two standing next to him nodded and laughed a bit as well as they began to walk away from the scene. They tiptoed slowly and quietly away, but from the small opening beneath the door they could see a light turn on.

Panic seemed to overtake the figures as they attempted to flee in a hurry, but it was too late. The door was pulled open and light poured into the dark corridors. The light managed to illuminate the faces of the still smiling Hideo, Takato, and Froggy.

Julie looked at the massive stack of various ship supplies piled in front of her door and looked at them with irritation. "Really?" Hideo scratched the back of his head and sweat dropped out of sheer embarrassment. "This seemed so much better in my head."

Froggy shook his head in disappointment, "You pulled me into this thing and you didn't even realize that the door opened inward instead of out, gero?" The Crimson Bomber didn't have a response to this. Seemed like in the end his prank did fail pretty badly. Julie's anger at the point however only seemed to be growing.

"I expect this kin of thing from these idiots, but not you Takato." The marksman kept his usual flat line expression and looked to Hideo for a moment. "My master's wish is my command." The fishwoman groaned in annoyance and began to tear down the failed barricade prank.

"Whatever, just get this junk out of my way." Together they began to pull down the wall but after a bit of time the ship seemed to hit something and come to an abrupt stop. The four of them all fell to the floor and looked around. More lights seemed to turn on from other room in the ship as Haze and Ursa were awake now.

"What did we hit? Wasn't Takato supposed to be handling the late night steering and look out?" Haze asked, ignoring all the random junk lying about in the hallway. Julie didn't bother trying to get answers from anyone; she had had enough and rushed to the deck. The rest of the crew followed behind her.

By the look of things it seemed that the ship had actually managed to hit an island, a fact that surprised both Julie and Takato. She turned to the three pranksters and glared at them maliciously. In a few moments the three of them were all lying on the ground, bloody, bruised, and beaten. She picked up the captain by the collar of his shirt and began to shake him around wildly. "You idiot, you took Takato away from his spot and now the ship is damaged. You're lucky I don't beat the crap out of you!"

Haze sweat dropped. "Um, Julie, I think you already did that," she said rather quietly in an attempt to avoid being directly caught in the fishwoman's rage. As she dropped the bomber back to the ground Takato got on his feet and pulled out his combat knife.

"Lord Katsua! I've failed you, please allow me to commit seppuku," he spoke while raising the blade but was stopped by the rest of the crew. "Everybody, calm down," he attempted to ease the situation. "It's no big deal anyway. Ursa will just stay on the ship and fix it while we have fun on this new island."

The zoan user didn't waste a second to morph into his full bear form and tower above Hideo with his massive size. Baring his teeth, the shipwright growled at his gray haired captain. "No big deal?" The darkness only made Ursa's bear form all the more intimidating for the Crimson Bomber as he slowly backed away.

"Alright point taken, but how come Froggy and Takato aren't being assaulted like I am? They helped." The rest of the crew seemed to ignore him from that point on, making any further argument rather futile.

"Still, it's rather odd, don't you think?" Takato said to no one in particular. Froggy turned to him, "What is, gero?" The marksman stood to his feat and looked over the side of the sip and out to the island they had hit. The outer areas of the island seemed to be surrounded by a few scarce trees here and there with something in the distance. Despite the darkness, Takato's keen eyes managed to see the town at the center. "I only left my post for an hour at max, yet we somehow managed to run into this unseen island. Just seems so unlikely."

As the moon disappeared further and further behind the horizon, it seemed dawn was steadily approaching, along with something else. "Uh oh, we've got trouble guys." Haze looked out to the water and could see hundreds of small fins emerging from the surface and speeding towards the Crimson Hammer. The next thing they were able to see were teeth and beady red eyes attached to the bodies of the fish headed at them.

Julie cracked her knuckles along with her neck while looking out at the attackers and grinned. "Finally, something I can relieve this built up stress on." Hideo reached into his coat and pulled out several Crimson Bombers while Haze drew her sword, Froggy pulled out his umbrella and several capsules, Takato grabbed his bow and arrows and Ursa shifted into his hybrid form.

A few small fleets of the vicious fish leaped from the water and directly in the crews direction. Ursa and Julie stepped forward however and began to demolish them with a flurry of blows, sending them all back into the water and disappearing into the dark depths. "X Claw!" The human bear hybrid shouted as he tore through the creatures with a flurry of claw swipes.

Julie leaped in the direction of the fish and delivered an attack of her own. "Dragon Kick!" She shouted while delivering an upward kick to a large group and sending them all into the air. Takato wasted no time in following her up by shooting the creatures down while they were still helpless in the sky.

"Kori Ball!" "Konki Bakuha!" "Crimson Bomber!" Froggy began to spin several blue capsules on the top of his opened umbrella before launching them all into the water. As they made impact with the fish the capsule managed to burst open and freeze the remaining attackers in place. Haze took this moment to gather energy into her hands and fired it at the frozen portion of water and sending fish flying in different directions. Hideo ended the combo by tossing several of his Crimson Bombers into the fray and finishing the job.

"Those guys weren't so tough!" The gray haired captain shouted while putting away the rest of his bombers. Haze crouched down and picked up one of the fish that had just attacked and began to look it over.

"These things are…mechanical?"

Unknown to the pirate crew, they were being watched during their small clash with the fish. A silver bird flying in the air with an oddly shiny glass eye looked down on them before heading back towards the island at incredible speeds.

"Mechanical," Froggy echoed Julie's last comment. This seem to draw Hideo's attention as well as their eyes lit up with glee. "As in robots!" The two said in an excited unison fashion. The rest of the crew sweat dropped.

"Now really isn't the time you two." Haze said before handing the torn up piece of machinery over to Ursa. Although not being an expert in robotics or anything of the such, the shipwright's eyes were still the most reliable of the crew in this situation. "The craftsmanship of this thing is pretty remarkable, even such a damaged state."

Before the boy managed to finish his research on the specimen however Takato pulled out his bow and took aim towards the forest. "Lord Katsua, someone's approaching. A group…about eight of them…" Already having experienced a scrimmage on the island, the crew prepared for what else may end up attacking.

The first of the group to emerge was a man dressed in red metallic armor-like gear with yellow coloring near the shins and hands. On his chest was a yellow V with a similar one attached to his forehead as well. He wore a rather cocky smirk across his face. The next that appeared had a strange shape that seemed to merge his head and torso into one. His body was fully blue besides yellow gloves and boots. The strangest part was likely the fact that his body had an enormous fan attached to the chest.

Following him was another strange one who appeared to be a guy in a wooden suit of armor, specifically around the head, torso, hands and feet. To his side was another individual wearing blue and yellow clothing with blue being the primary color. What separated him from the rest however was the brightly glowing glass dome on his head.

The other four silhouettes were visible but soon vanished. Instead, two short men dressed in white lab coats stepped out. They both seemed to be rather old in age with one sporting a full head of white hair and a beard and the second sporting large bits of gray hair on either side of his balding head and a mustache. The white haired man spoke first.

"Pirates, leave our peaceful island immediately or we will make you leave by force." In a display of how serious they were, the first man to approach in the red and yellow quickly moved towards the ship. His speed was so great that the most one was able to catch was a simple blur. He only stopped once he had managed to get behind Hideo and held a large V shaped blade at the captain.

"Make a single move and I end you here and now," Takato growled coldly, his arrow already poised to take of the individuals head. The others on shore revealed their weapons towards the Crimson Storms while the pirates all did the same, putting them in a bit of a standoff.

"Now now, Wright. There's no need for such hostility, I'm sure they have a good reason to be here." The gray haired man lightly tapped the white haired man now known as Wright on the shoulder as he attempted to calm down the situation. "Gray haired boy. Tell us your name and business here. And that Jolly Roger. I've never seen it in the Grand Line…"

The red man with the boomerang like blade dropped his weapon and leaped back to the side of his companions which allowed everyone else to do the same. Hideo heaved a sigh of relief. "I never knew how soothing it was to not have a blade three inches from your throat." He began to rub his neck even though the weapon had never actually touched him. "Anyway, this is my crew and we're new to the Grand Line. Came all the way from West Blue actually. As you can see though, we seemed to be having some transportation issues. Just let us hang here for a bit and we'll be gone in no time. No trouble, I promise." Wright looked at them with a bit of skepticism as the gray haired man instead was smiling.

"Come on, how could you not trust a handsome mug like this?" The Crimson Bomber put on his biggest 'nice guy' smile possible while giving a thumbs up. Wright still didn't seem to be taking it well, but the other man waved away their fighters with a single gesture and headed back into town. "Go ahead and show them around town, Wright. I've got some work to do. I'll send one of the RMs down later to help you kids with your ship repairs."

With that said, he was gone along with the four strange men leaving only Wright and the pirates. "Fine, follow me, I'll show you the town and where you'll be staying while your ship is fixed up." He began to head back toward the center of the island where the others had disappeared to.

"Can we really trust these guys? They nearly killed you." Julie said while crossing her arm in disapproval. Hideo on the other hand was already stepping on to the island. "Come on, I'm sure it'll be fine. Besides, they could've killed me but didn't. That means something, right?"

"Er, not really, Captain…" Ursa said rather nonchalantly but found himself right behind the gray haired teen. "If you don't agree then why are you following him, gero?" Froggy was standing beside the two of them now and walking towards town.

"You're doing the same thing you idiot!" Julie said in sheer frustration and began to walk into town. It seemed at some point Takato had managed to join the group as well as Haze. "Wherever Lord Katsua goes, I go," was all that was needed to be heard from the marksman.

"I wonder if they have any candy stores around here. Would be a real bummer if they didn't." The rest of the crew sweat dropped while thinking the same thing. _"Is that all he has on his mind at a time like this?"_

Once the crew had gotten to the island's core they found a bustling town full of people and buildings. Oddly enough, it seemed that almost all of the places were actually built out of steel rather wood or some form of rock. It was a truly odd sight for the Crimson Storm Pirates, but the people seemed to be enjoying it. There were also several animals around that upon closer inspection would reveal them to be mechanical like the creatures that attacked the crew earlier.

"Interesting place you have here, Wright. What's with all of the robots though?" Haze asked while Hideo and Froggy seemed to be going wild over the abundance of robots around. The man in white raised an eyebrow.

"I'd prefer it if you call me Dr. Wright. But yes, this town was actually built from the ground up by my colleague Dr. Riley –the man you saw earlier- and myself. Due to the lack of animal life around here we decided to create our own to liven up the place and soon enough more and more people found their way here. It's been so long that my old brain can't really remember the specifics, but the actual creation of such things was actually pretty simple thanks to our experience and research while growing up on Barujimoa."

"I've heard of that place. The most notable person to come from there was a World Government scientist by the name of Vegapunk." Takato said blankly while taking in the various sights as well. As the group continued to press on they were encountered by a teen dressed in blue along with a blonde girl about the same age and a red dog.

"Hey Captain, that dog looks like he could be your long lost brother or something." Julie joked casually which got her a sarcastic chuckle from Hideo and a glare. The boy in blue with brown hair was a resident of the town named as Rock. The female running alongside him had blonde hair reaching to her shoulders and wore a red dress. Lastly was the crimson red and mechanical dog by the name of Race, their pet.

"Dr. Wright. I heard there was some trouble out by the shores and came to see if it was pirates again." Rock said while eying Hideo rather suspiciously. The white haired man simply continued walking however. "It's fine Rock and Roll. The pirates are right here, and for now will be staying with us while their ship is repaired."

Wright was about to say more, but was abruptly cut off by Hideo's hysterical laughter. Rock's brow furrowed in anger as he grabbed the captain by his collar. "Just what's so funny , pirate? You're lucky we didn't make you and your filthy crew leave upon arrival."

Even while being threatened however, Hideo continued to laugh. "I'm sorry, no offense to you guys but your names are Rock and Roll. And is there anyone on this island whose name doesn't start with an R sound? Riley, Wright, Rock, Roll… what's the dog's name? Rex?" The blue teen cocked back his fist but was stopped when Roll took hold of him.

"Just calm down Rock, if Dr. Wright and Dr. Riley think it's fine that they stay here, then it should be no problem, right?" His fist tightened for a moment but he eventually released and turned away from the pirates. Wright didn't seem to pay much attention to the short altercation and instead raised his hands to present a rather large building. "And this is it, our home and I guess yours as well for a short time. Come on in."

While this was going on Dr. Riley had already managed to make it back to a separate building, a laboratory from the looks of it. In his hands was a small mechanical bird that was soon plugged into a Den Den Mushi that was connected to a television screen. It seemed that the bird had actually managed to record the Crimson Storm Crew's battle with the mechanical animals of the water.

As the video continued to play out the smile on the man's lips seems to only continue to grow. Spread out in front of him was the bounty posters for Hideo, Haze, Takato, and Ursa. "These four alone have a bounty totaling more than fifty million beli, but the other two seem rather promising as well. Perhaps this is a good time to move ahead with my plans." He spun around in his chair to the eight silhouettes standing in the background. "Keep an eye on them for now and wait on my command. Also, I need one of you to help out with their ship repairs, if you know what I mean. That is all…"

"Ugh, I'm so bored here. Can I go out around town or something?" Hideo was reclining on a sofa and being more fidgety than a child. Wright only shook his head while worked on something at a desk. "Like I said, your guides around town will be here shortly." A few moments later there was a knock at the front door which prompted the scientist up to his feet and to open it. Standing there were the four men they had seen at the shore as well as another four.

The one in the red with the yellow V was known as Swiftman. Next was the one that seemed to be wearing a tree for clothing who went by the name of Barkman. The guy with the oddly shaped body and fan in his chest area was called Breezeman, and lastly was the individual in blue and yellow with the glass dome atop his head, his name was Flareman.

Starting off the new arrivals however was a man in red with saw blades around his shoulder and a smaller one on the front of his helmet that hid all from sight but his eyes. He actually seemed to be the largest of the group as he stood about seven feet and actually had to duck under the door to get in. He went by the name of Steelman. Next was a guy in all green diving equipment and seemed to have bubbles rising from his diving mask. His name was Bubbleman not surprisingly.

The next was dressed in red and white with a large visor on his head, his name seemed to be Clashman. And lastly was the smallest of the group, a guy in a small yellow box shaped suit that seemed to resemble lighter and wearing red gloves and boots. This individual went by the name of Scorchman.

"So, just who are these guys, and why do they need to specifically be our tour guides?" Haze asked while eyeing them up and down. She wasn't quite sure what, but something seemed off about them.

Wright didn't seem to mind her question however and replied quickly. "These eight individuals are the RMs, Robot Masters. All created by Riley and I in order to better the island and protection from those who may attack the island."

"Woah, so they're actually machines too? But they seem so realistic. Human like, I mean." Ursa was rather amazed at what just two men were capable of creating in the years spent on this island. "Yes, they are truly a group of our greatest works."

"Well it's about time. Let's go!" Hideo didn't waste a second in jumping from his seat and heading out the door. Julie growled underneath her breath and ran off after him. "I guess I'll keep him from doing anything stupid."

Clashman lifted the visor from his face and followed after them. "I guess I'll watch those two." Swiftman only nodded and let him go. Ursa was now heading out the door as well, of course in a less excited fashion compared to his captain. "I need to stock up on some supplies for repairing the ship."

Barkman began to pound his wooden chest frantically and lead him to the door. "Although we don't use it much around here, I know this great lumber yard. Just follow me, I can also lead you a tool shop." As the two headed out Haze followed as well. "I'll give you hand as well Ursa."

Froggy looked around then back at the door. "Wait, don't leave me with…him…gero." Indeed, he had been left behind with Takato. The marksman eyed him only for a moment for his last comment before disregarding it. He hung his head down and began to head outside as well. "I guess you can show me a place with medical supplies or something, gero." Flareman began to lead them outside.

Nearly an hour had passed and the group of Hideo, Julie, and Clashman had found all but nothing. "We haven't even seen a single candy store since arriving. This sucks." Hideo kicked a tin can which turned out to be a robot as well and ended up kicking him back in the shin.

"You know, now that I think about it, there hasn't been a single restaurant or anything of the sort around here as well. What's up with that?" Clash simply shrugged and continued leading them down various streets. "How the hell should I know? I'm a robot. I don't eat and I simply do what I'm told." He spat and even seemed to pick up his pace.

The fishwoman began to crack her knuckles and seemed like she was prepared to do something she shouldn't until Hideo took hold of her arms. "Geez, I thought you were supposed to be keeping me out of trouble not the other way around." The Robot Master didn't seem to pay much mind to them and instead was stopped by one of the townsfolk.

"Hey, Clashman, mind giving us a hand?" The red machine looked over to the group of men who seemed to be doing a bit of demolition on a run down building. "Sure thing." He said rather gruffly and extended a single arm, allowing it to shift into a large drill like shape. As the drill rotated and picked up speed it launched from his body and stuck into the side of the structure. On the end of it seemed to be an odd device. After flashing for a couple of moments it exploded and brought the building down with it.

"Woah, not only are you a robot, but you use bombers as well?" The gray haired teen seemed to put aside all of his previous disappointments and was lost in another trance of amazement. Clashman passed it off as no big deal and moved on, his arm shifting back to normal. Hideo seemed to be still lost in his trance however and Julie attempted several things to snap him out of it including yelling and physical blows, but to no avail.

"God, you see a bit of eye candy and this is what happens…"

"Candy? You found candy on this island?" The martial artist slammed her palm into her forehead and sighed. "Why am I not surprised?"

Meanwhile, in another part of town Ursa and Haze were walking back to the ship along with Barkman. Ursa had shifted into his hybrid form in order to carry the huge amount of lumber while Haze brought along the tools. Barkman seemed to be dealing with a robotic woodpecker beating into the side of his wooden helmet.

"Damn mecha woodpeckers!" He shouted while beating his chest much like before. The swordswoman laughed at this. "Wow, so all the animals here really are machines. You'd think such a grand place like this would be more famous."

The Robot Master began to pound his chest a few more times before responding, "People rarely find this island because it moves around so much. Not even Dr. Riley knows why though. Just a weird island." The colossal shipwright nodded in response as he set the lumber down in front of the Crimson Hammer and surveyed the damage. "That would explain how we managed to hit it so abruptly."

Barkman was now beating into his head instead of his chest now. "So, you guys are pirates, huh?"

"Er, maybe you should stop doing that. You may end up hurting your brain or circuits or something…" Haze smiled nervously while opening the toolbox and allowing Ursa to dig around for what he was looking for. "But yeah, we're pirates, why do you ask?"

The robot simply shrugged and got to work as well. "No reason."

"So…um, what do you do in your free time, gero?" Froggy finally blurted out. The group had been walking around town for a bit and the whole time they pretty much remained silent which was slowly eating away at the doctor's sanity. "I like to hone my skill in order to better protect Lord Katsua." Takato said flatly without even looking at the other teen. Flareman pretty much hadn't said anything the entire time either and continued to lead them around.

They never did spot a single medical building now that Froggy thought about it, but there was a more pressing matter that needed to be taken care of; which was to find some sort of enjoyment in being stuck with Takato. "I meant what do you do for fun? Like I enjoy singing and playing music with my frog buddies here, gero." Kiwi, Mango, and Plum all awoke at once and began to croak in a harmonious yet annoying tone.

"It's a good thing you're a better doctor than musician." Takato began to hold his ears until the frog trio had stopped singing. "But I don't do anything for fun, as you say. Fun is for those who have the pleasure and leisure to enjoy something. I simply have a duty that I'm obligated to fulfill."

The doctor frowned and simply gave up by this point. "I knew this would happen. Watching paint dry would've been more fun than hanging out with you."

"Watching paint dry is a good past time. It really calms my mind." Takato said with usual flat line expression which got him an odd look from Froggy. "You're joking right? You don't seriously watch paint dry, do you, gero?"

For once the marksman turned back and looked at his turquoise haired crewmate. "Does this look like the face of someone who makes jokes?" In short, the answer to that was a no. Froggy simply looked up to the sky and thought to himself, _"Why me…"_

Takato had looked up to the sky as well, but seemed to catch sight of something none of the others had. "Flareman, you mind if we head in this direction?" The Robot Master looked at him strangely for a moment, but had no arguments and changed paths.

"You bastard!" Rock seemingly came out of nowhere and landed a punch to Hideo's cheek that sent him to the ground. The teen in blue then shifted his arm into a weapon that seemed to resemble a hand cannon of some sort. Clashman by this point already had his weapon ready to fire on Rock.

"Stand down, kid. You can't just go around aiming that thing at any ol' person." Hideo dusted himself off and was getting back to his feet by this point. "Agh, you hit me hard, that arm must be made of metal." Rock growled out of anger and returned his arm back to its normal form allowing Clashman to do the same.

"So you're machine as well?" Julie was the first to mention this but changed the subject shortly afterward. "That aside though, what's your problem?"

"Don't act like you don't know!" One of you filthy pirates kidnapped Dr. Wright!" There was only silence, Julie and Hideo had been take off guard by this though Clashman didn't seem affected in the least. "He goes missing on the same day you low lives wash up on shore. There's no way it's a coincidence."

Hideo was beginning to boil a bit, but he kept his anger under control. "Keep talking about my crew like that and you'll be the next one to go missing around here. No way it was us though, your precious Robot Masters have been watching my crew the entire time we've been here." Rock turned to Clashman who only nodded in agreement with the pirate.

Julie folded her arm and thought for a moment. "I guess the least we could do is head back to his lab though and look around for any sort of clues. Not like we found anything out here anyway." She referred to Hideo and his candy hunt, the whole reason they were running around town in the first place.

Upon entering the home things seemed to be pretty much the same as they were when the crew left earlier. "Was there even a struggle? You sure he didn't just go out for a snack?" Hideo asked while walking off into the scientist's bedroom.

"Hey stay out of there. I don't want you stealing anything!" Rock rushed in after him and found the captain looking at an old picture resting by the lamp. "What are you doing? That's not investigation?" Hideo didn't say anything for a while and instead walked out of the room and presented the picture to Julie who seemed surprised as well. "Why aren't you two saying anything?"

"This picture. The people in it were in town earlier." The photo showed Dr Riley and Dr. Wright standing next to an incomplete building. The two of them were both many years younger as their hairs still had some color and there weren't any wrinkles. What was odd however was that standing beside them were a group of men that looked exactly the same as the demolition guys they had run into earlier. "They're the exact same, even down to their clothing…" Julie added in, awestruck.

"Woah!" Hideo shouted as he pushed Julie and Rock away from an incoming Clash Bomb. The drill end dug its way into the steel of the far wall and managed to completely blow it out. "What the hell are you doing?"

Both of Clashman's arms were now drills and rotating at high speeds. As the two weapons touched sparks shot off and lit up the room. "Like I said earlier, I'm just a robot who does what he's told. Right now my orders are to eliminate the three of you and bring you back." The Robot Master rushed forward and stabbed towards Rock who seemed to not notice him. Julie intercepted however with a mighty uppercut to his chin.

The red robot landed several feet away from her on his feet, the attack leaving no notable damage. "Damnit, this guy's whole body is made of steel. We're gonna have to hit him with everything we've got."

As the pirates prepared for battle Rock seemed to still be frozen in his earlier position. "This can't be…they're supposed to be protectors of our island…"

Back at the Crimson Hammer Ursa was working on the ship by himself. "I thought you guys came here to help me?" He said rather annoyed. Barkman and Haze were sitting down and talking.

"Hahahaha!" The robot laughed and hit his chest with every 'ha'. "That's such a cool story. You guys seem pretty close as a crew." Haze only nodded as the two of them ignored Ursa.

"If you just wanted to hear about our adventures you could of asked earlier rather than beating around the bush about it." Barkman opened his mouth to say something but stopped midway. A light in his head was flickering on and off.

"No, I'm sorry, but that's an order I can't fulfill…" Ursa stopped what he was doing to check out what was going on. Barkman had now risen to his feet and was clutching his head as a voice seemed to play continuously. "Hey, you need some help?" Haze tried to approach him but was swatted away from him. "Don't come near me!"

This was all the zoan user needed to see before he went on the offensive. He leaped out from the ship and delivered a blow to the robot's side that sent him skidding away, his feet sliding through the sand. "Never put your hands on my nakama like that again." He growled in a feral manner even though he was in human form.

Barkman still seemed to be in physical pain however as he still clutched his head. He looked down at the sand, refusing to return a glance to the two pirates. "Please…you two have to kill me…" When he looked back up to them tears were falling from his cheeks and dampening the sand.

"So why are we here exactly, gero?" Froggy asked while tapping Takato in the head. The idea was to annoy him and pull out some sort of emotion from the boy, but that seemed to do nothing. Takato spoke calmly while looking at the small building in front of them. It was a laboratory, not unlike the one that Wright had back in town. "I saw something. That's all."

His hand reached for the doorknob but Flareman cut the boy off. "I can't allow you to enter. Not unless the doctor permits it." The robot said sternly which left the two of them at a standstill. Froggy smiled and began to strum at his banjo. "I'm a doctor~"

The two of them turned to him and gave a look that pretty much said "now's not the time for that crap." With this the doctor suddenly deflated and put away his instrument. "Why am I the only one stuck in a group of _two_ robots?"

Just then the globe on Flareman's head flashed a few time and a smile creased his lips. "Actually, you may enter…" He stepped out of the way and even went so far as to open the door for him. Takato eyed him suspiciously and walked in to the dark room, Froggy close behind. Flareman remained outside and slowly the lights all flickered on sinde and illuminated their surroundings.

"Just as I thought." The marksman said as he looked at a mechanical bird perched in a cage. It seemed like it was powered off or something at the moment though. Froggy seemed to be caught up with something else however. Near a desk and a large screen was a stack of posters. The most notable of course were those of their own crewmates, but there many more. These posters were oddly familiar as well. "Hey, don't these guys looks just like…the Robot Masters, gero?"

Just as he had stated the other eight posters in the stack were other pirates that seemed to resemble a specific Robot Master. Each poster featured a specific name such as Allen "Solar Flare" Hollax or Shin "Swift Foot" all of them having bounties of at least 30 million beli. As the two walked back out Flareman was waiting on them. "Well, now that you know the truth I guess it's time I follow my orders and take you in. Riley believes your crew will be a great addition to our group."

"Allen "SolarFlare" Hollax. Bounty: 47 million beli. Chance of victory: .001%" Takato said in a monotonous and robotic like voice which made Froggy sweat a little bit.

"Alright, I an believe the paint thing from earlier, but I know for sure you're joking now, gero!" Takato turned to him with flat line expression and said nothing. "Or maybe you're not? Ugh, forget it…"

Takato began to load an arrow and Froggy grabbed his umbrella but Flareman was faster. "Time Stopper!" He called while holding out his hand and letting out a bright flash of light from his entire body. The two pirates found themselves frozen in mid motion as the machine quickly dashed their way. He dealt a devastating punch to Froggy's gut as well as akick into Takato's ribs with his metal limbs that sent them flying. After hitting the ground however they seemed capable of moving again.

"There's no way he seriously has the power to stop time." Takato said in awe, for the first time not believing what had happened right before his eyes. Froggy on the other hand was getting back to his feet and laughing it off. "Hahaha, now who's the one being messed with? For the one with the most accurate eyes of the crew you sure did miss a lot, gero." The marksman didn't quite catch on to what the boy was saying.

"If you were watching while we were frozen you would've noticed that we were the only ones unable to move during that time. Everything else around us was still moving around on its own. Now, that could mean he just targeted us specifically, but there's more. After being hit by that flash I could no longer feel a thing. Not the sun on my skin, the cool breeze, or even Kiwi on top of my head."

Flareman began to smile even more than before as Froggy continued. "I don't know if you know this or not, but all of the body's movements are actually controlled by the central nervous system which uses neuroelectric signals from the brain to communicate with the rest of the body. Simply put, I think his ability is more to stop those waves with some sort of electrical impulse of his own rather than stopping time, which is why he is still able to move, being more machine than man."

Flareman chuckled lightly and clapped. "Well done. A bit of a lengthy explanation, but you're crew must be pretty lucky to have you as their doctor. You know your stuff young man." The boy smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Well, you know, It's just what I do."

Suddenly there was another flash that stopped the two of them again. The Robot Master soon stood above the two pirates and struck another set of powerful blows. "But knowing how my skill works doesn't allow you victory you know."

"But this does! Amagasa Billiard!" Froggy stabbed forward with his umbrella, specifically toward the globe on the robot's head. Flareman quickly let out another pulse however that managed to stop Froggy's movements but as it turned out, the teen had actually let go of the parasol, allowing it to continue soaring and shattering the globe.

This had managed to stun Flareman long enough for the two of them to recover and counter attack. "Takato, he's all yours. Finish this, gero!" The marksman wasted not even a second and let loose several bolts. The first arrow wasn't enough to pierce the metal armor, but as more and more were fired they struck the exact same spot and split the arrow fired before allowing the first one to be driven further and further in. "Bolt Drive." He dubbed the new technique. "Alright, let's head back to town. Hopefully we're not too late to warn the others, gero."

"I know I kicked you pretty hard buddy, but I don't want to kill you." Ursa said nervously after calming down.

"No, you don't understand. I've done horrible things in the past. If you don't stop me now I won't be able to control myself. I'm just worthless pirate scum anyway. I left my crew to die out at sea and drifted to this island where that man, he made me into this abomination…" Haze hesitantly approached him like before, but as the man swung his arms again several small leaves flew from his wrist. They missed her marginally and managed to dig themselves into a nearby tree, the sun shining off of them and giving them a metallic gleam.

"Just do it! Call it karma for what I did to my own men. It was a pleasure to hear about you guys and your goals though. Helping each other every step of the way." The tears didn't stop falling from his face as the pain had finally receded. "I had goals of my own now that I think about it. I was going too…" Barkman suddenly stopped. His eyes had gone completely blank and the shore was silent. "Command form 011101. Threats detected: Ursa "Bear Cub" Miroku and Haze "Shining Rose". Capture threats and take them back to Dr. Riley."

"This isn't good. We'll have to put him out."

"No, we're not going to kill him!" Haze shouted back at the zoan user as he transformed into his full bear form. "Calm down. I wasn't saying we kill him, just knock him out or something. Don't underestimate that sturdy wooden armor though. It seems to be comparable to steel from my blow earlier. Must be made of Adam or something."

Several leaves flew out of various spots on the Robot Master's body and began to circle around him at high speeds. He suddenly charged in haze's direction, intent on slicing her with the miniature rotating blades, but the sword user managed to block this assault with her nodachi and held him at bay. "I've got him!" Ursa shouted as he leaped up and attempted to stomp down on his back with the full weight of his bear form.

Barkman didn't pay much mind to him however and continued to push towards Haze. As Ursa approached the Leaf Shield easily deflected his attack and left him with several cuts.

The red haired pirate looked into the pirate turned machine's eyes and saw nothing. "This is so horrible." She murmured under her breath as energy began to flow to her arms. This proved more than enough to force Barkman away from her and leave an opening yet as she attempted to strike the blow the shield of leaves deflected her blade. "Ursa, I'll make an opening for you. Once I do, take care of this."

The shipwright nodded in response as Haze took a stance and awaited the next attack. Barkman wasted no time in rushing ahead again, but missed his mark as Haze leaped into the air. "Kakuu-kagai(aerial assault)" She came back down with a heavy downward slash that had little effect on the leaf shield. "Ro-sui-pu(low sweep)" From the blades already downward position she then swung up and sliced away the leaves again; this time the effect being much more noticeable and even causing a bit of strain on wooden foe. "Hana-kai!(flower cut)" She finished the combo with a horizontal slash that managed to knock away the remaining leaves. "Now!"

"Paw Boxing!" He shouted with authority in his bear form as he stood on the hind legs and delivered two devastating blows. One went to Barkman's face and the second hit him in the chest and ended the fight. With a job well done, he reverted to human form. "C'mon Haze, we gotta go and make sure everyone else is okay." She nodded, still looking at Barkman's fallen form before running right behind Ursa.

Back at Wright's house one could see several explosions going off left and right. Julie jumped out of a more recent smoke cloud coughing. "Damnit, why do I get stuck in the middle of a fight between two of you pyromaniac idiots?" Hideo and Clashman leaped out next, each of them preparing their next respective bombers and seemingly enjoying this the whole way.

"You're pretty good kid. In all my years as a pirate I don't think I ever had this much fun fighting another explosives expert." Clashman said and fired several more drills a Hideo. The Crimson Bomber simply chuckled while igniting the next fuse.

"I guess I should be honored? Then again, this is pretty fun. Most fun I've had since we got here." Clashman avoided a couple of Rocket Bombers and lifted his arm to fire another of his own only to hear a small click that signified only one thing. Julie was in front of him before he even got the chance to respond.

"Seems like you're all out, and all those explosions surely wore down your armor quite a bit." The Robot Master gulped and attempted a punch that was easily blocked. She grinned menacingly and cocked back a fist. "Juli's Fastball Special!" Her fist flew back forward at amazing speeds in a powerful jab that burst a hole into the red armor. Clashman was sent flying back into the wall of the house. This seemed to be all that was needed however for the home to come collapsing down after taking so much stress.

"Well you guys seem to clean up rather nicely, gero." Froggy commented on the destruction as he arrived with Takato, around the same both Ursa and Haze appeared as well. Due to all the commotion however many people left their homes to see what was going on and obviously this didn't look good for the pirates.

"I knew we shouldn't have let you in here. You destroy Dr. Wright's lab and even attack one of the Robot Masters." One of the men from town said while pointing to the fallen Clashman.

"It's not what it looks like, I swear!" Hideo said while trying to kick some dirt on the still burning rubble from their fight. Things seemed like they were about to get rather violent until one of the towns people pointed off to the side. "Look, it's the remaining Robot Masters!" Sure enough, leading the remaining five fighters was Swiftman.

It seemed like another fight was about to break out, but the Robot Masters simply stopped. Swiftman nodded towards Steelman and Breezeman who got to work. Steelman shot out several saw blades that whizzed through the air and sliced at the supports of several buildings, causing them to collapse. Breezeman's hand shifted into small hand cannons as the fan on his chest began to rotate at high speeds. After picking up speed he began to fire large blast of air that sent townspeople flying left and right.

Swiftman smiled and cleared his throat. "Starting today, Dr. Riley will be beginning the first phase of his plan. You people of this town have the lovely honor of being our first workout exercise as we cause as much destruction as possible. Enjoy!" He removed the boomerang shaped blade from his forehead and threw it towards a woman but that attack was stopped by Hideo who used a piece of metal from the fallen building as a shield.

"What the hell is your problem? Aren't you guys sworn protectors of the people on this island?" The red and yellow robot turned his back to Hideo and waved off his men who split up into to town. "Oh, and Scorchman, I want you to handle their ship. Make sure our new friends won't be escaping this place any time soon."

"Give us back Dr. Wright!" Rock shouted and let loose several rounds from his hand cannon that didn't strike their mark. He began to grind his teeth at his own failure and the destruction going on around him.

Hideo cracked his knuckles. "Damnit. I'm going after Riley. I'll put an end to this at its source!" He looked to the rest of his crew who all seemed to be in agreement.

"It's fine captain. We'll take care of them here and stop them from harming these people." Julie said, obviously itching for another good fight. Hopefully one with out explosives.

"And I'll make sure that box guy doesn't burn down our ship. It's already damaged enough as it is." Ursa added in, already looking towards the shore. Hideo smiled. "Alright, let's move out!"

The crew split their different ways, each heading in the direction they saw a specific Robot Master go with their captain heading off for Riley. He did find himself with an unexpected guest however. "Why are you following me?" He said rather annoyed as Rock was right behind him.

"I'm going to find Dr. Wright, no mater what it takes." He said fiercely as he attempted to pass the Crimson Bomber. "Go back to town, this isn't a game, this is serious."

"And what makes you more obligated to protect my own hometown than me?" The sheer authority and power in his voice had been enough to make Hideo stop for a moment. "Back in the lab I froze up during that fight and let you guys do all the fighting. Well I'm not going to sit back and let that happen again. Besides, you need me to show you the way to Riley's lab anyway." Hideo couldn't lie, the guy had a point. It was pretty lucky that he had even started his run in the right direction. "Fine, let's do this!"

As Swiftman blazed through the streets leaving only destruction and a fiery blur there was another individual following closely behind. Several arrows could be seen following the robot's path, though none of them managed to even so much as touch him. "Sorry, kid. You won't be landing a hit on me anytime soon. Even in my days as a pirate I was known as the fastest man in South Blue. I was called Swift Foot for a reason."

"Side Bolt." Takato said flatly as he let loose several of the oddly shaped arrows that were actually bent inward even the arrowhead itself. Rather than following a direct path like his other shots they actually swooped in from the side and cut off Swiftman's path ahead of time. The first few missed him but the last managed to scrape his leg. The speedy opponent skidded to a stop and looked to Takato.

"Nice work landing a blow, but getting little scrapes like those won't get you through my armor." He removed the yellow boomerang from his head as well opening his chest compartment in order to pull out a second. "Swift Boomerang!" He threw the first one which flew downward at the marksman's feet in a sweeping motion.

Takato jumped over this one but it soon came spinning back towards him from behind. "Swift Scissor!" He now threw the second blade which came towards the boy's chest in an attempt to work along with the other to cut him in half like a pair of shears. "I expected more, but game over I guess."

"Not quite." His eyes quickly assessed the situation and Takato didn't seem to break a sweat in countering. Putting his bow around his shoulders he grabbed the small combat knives from his side and held one in each hand, each countering a different boomerang. This wasn't enough however as both of the blades continued to slice down their intended path and left gashes in each of his arms. Swiftman caught them both and flicked the blood to the floor. "Impressive, deflecting the attacks even though you knew such a result would come about."

Takato disregarded the blood running down his robes and prepared two shots. "Anything for my lord, I'd give my soul to fulfill his wishes." Swiftman quickly dodged both fired shots.

"He must be lucky to have such a great slave like you around then?" He spoke mockingly and moved in for the next attack. Both blades were held to his side and it seemed he was preparing for two cutting attacks. The marksman held his ground however and let loose two gunpowder bolts that struck the robot head on and sent him flying back. He landed on a knee, armor still smoking and rather beaten. "Fine direct attacks aren't my thing anyway." He was quickly back on his feet and dashing back towards town. This time perhaps twice as fast as he was before. "No one can hit me at full speed."

The marksman eyed him from the distance and loaded only a single bolt. "No, he's not lucky to have me as a slave, but as a nakama." He released the string and the arrow flew forth, staying true to its path despite all of Swiftman's movements. Although it didn't seem like it, the arrow managed to hit its point soon enough, dead in the center of the RMs back and sent him sprawling to the ground. "Impossible…" He muttered, not able to get up again.

"I remain true to my path just like an arrow. The arrow that never misses its mark. Titles such as fastest man in South Blue are just that, titles. What really matters is resolve." Swiftman didn't seem to understand but smiled nonetheless.

"Well, since you beat me I guess I could let you in on something. A little fact that even Riley's senile old mind has forgotten over the years. I'm probably the only Robot Master to know this since I'm the first and earliest." Takato seemed hesitant at first but decided to hear him out.

"Get back here and fight like a man you cowardly bastard!" Julie was rushing down the streets after Bubbleman, the robot in green diving gear. Despite his appearance the guy was actually pretty quick on his feet and made quite a good chase.

"I'll give you a fight, blub!" He turned around and turned both arms into small cannons. "Bubble Lead!" He shouted and began to fire a volley of oversized bubbles at the fighter. Julie looked at the bubbles, back to the robot then the bubbles again and sweat dropped. "You can't be serious. Bubbles?"

She popped her knuckles and began to throw a rapid series of punches, each one popping the bubbles with relative ease. With each bubble that was burst Bubbleman's smirk only seemed to grow larger though. "You fool! Those are no ordinary bubbles, those are lined with a highly corrosive acid that will eat away at your flesh, glub!"

Sure enough Julie could see he was telling the truth, her leather jacket had begun to sizzle away and even her skin was starting to burn and smoke. The steel on the building around here also seemed to be slowly melting away as well. None of this seemed to afflict her in the slight however as she leaped forward and delivered a kick to Bubbleman's face that sent him to the ground and bouncing away like a beach ball.

"Is that all? Damnit, why do I always get stuck with the scrawniest opponents?" The Robot Master struggled back to his feet, looked at the fishwoman and took of running again, this time jumping into the ocean. "I'm not done with you yet. You'll pay for the damage done to my favorite jacket!" She immediately dived in after him.

"I'm done running, glub!" He lifted his arms and out from the sand beneath them hundreds of the fish that the crew had encountered upon arrival rose up and rushed at the single pirate.

"I didn't expect to use such a strong move on you. Limbs Tornado!" She shouted and began to swim around the water at high speeds delivering blow after blow at high speeds each hit managing to destroy a robot fish or even a group of them with ease. "This is impossible, glub!"

Once the job was done there were only floating pieces of metal and wires scattered about the water. "You shouldn't have jumped in the water when fighting a fishman and especially when fighting against me. Now let's see…how should I take care of you?" She gave a mecaing smile that made the robot shudder in terror. A horrible earsplitting shriek could be heard all across the island.

A few moments later Julie climbed out of the water with Bubble man on her shoulders, unconscious and foaming at the mouth. "Little scaredy cat, I didn't even touch him. Guess his bubbles malfunctioned or something."

"Breezeman's coming down and bringing the pain ladies and gentleman!" The blue Robot Master shouted as he jumped down from a building and shot a compressed air blast at Froggy. The doctor just barely managed to avoid being blown away by the sheer force, but the streetlight behind him wasn't so lucky. "Seems like puny man doesn't know what he's up against. None can stand when Breeze comes in and bring the Hurtincane."

The doctor sweat dropped. "Why are you talking in third person? And did you just try to put hurt and hurricane together? So not groovy, gero." Kiwi Mango and Plum nodded their heads in agreement which only enraged the robot. "The Breeze does not approve. Here comes the hutrincane! Air Shooter!" The turbine on his chest began to pick up even more speed as he fired a volley of smaller air bullets.

"Amagasa Shield!" Froggy opened the umbrella as a makeshift shield for the attacks, which was effective for a short time until the blows began to pile up. It didn't take long for him to reach his limit and to be sent soaring backwards, carried by previous air currents as well as more of the compressed bullets hitting him. The impact enough to send him into a home that was missing a wall.

"And now for the Breeze's epic finale! Don't blink ladies and gentleman, you may just miss it!" The turbine seemed to spin even faster than before as he fired two enormous blasts of air from both cannons. In midflight they combined to form an even larger and more destructive attack that struck the house and brought it crumbling down with Froggy inside. "No way puny man there survived that. Seems he could stand up to Hurtincane after all."

"Actually, how about you look up you big show boat, gero." If the Robot Master actually had a mouth his jaw probably would have dropped and hit the ground. Above him, floating in the sky was Froggy. It seemed his umbrella managed to catch the air current and he was soaring in the sky. "Kori Ball!" He shouted while tossing several small capsules at Breezeman. They hit his turbine head on and upon breaking ice spread all over, stopping it from spinning. "That should stop you from attacking long enough. Amagasa Billiard!"

His umbrella snapped shut and as he descended from the sky he aimed it down at the robot, picking up speed as he went. Breezeman attempted to fire another shot of air but with his fan frozen there was nothing he could do. "Normally I wouldn't be able to get through your armor, but that nice opening there for your fan makes my job much easier, gero." The end of his umbrella hit its mark dead on and sent the Robot Master to the ground as the doctor landed on his feet.

"Booyah! Looks like your could handle the Froggycane Mr. Breeze." The robot was silent as he lost consciousness and left Froggy alone. He stood there for a moment, crossed his arms and sighed. "Man that line was bad…"

Hideo and Rock had arrived in Riley's lab though had no relative luck in finding him or anything else for that matter yet. "Hey look, this picture, it's the same one that in Wright's house." Hideo picked up a picture frame, practically the exact same. Rock didn't seem to pay much attention to him however. Instead it seemed he had finally uncovered what he was looking for.

"I knew there was more to Riley's lab than this." He transformed his arm and shot at a steel hatch in the floor a few times before it popped open. It led to a winding staircase down below. Hideo eyed his arm only for moment before putting the picture down again.

"So if you're a robot how come you're not one of the Robot Masters?" Rock looked to him for a moment but remained silent, refusing to respond. "Weird…" Was all Hideo could say as the two rushed down the stairs. Once reaching the base of the stairs they now ran through several steel corridors until coming upon an enormous room with several screens, lab equipment and other basic necessities of the scientist profession.

"Riley!" Rock shouted across the room upon sight of the gray haired man. Behind him was a still unconscious Dr. Wright. The villain smiled and turned to them.

"Oh, good. You're here. Now you can see my plan unfold. Once my Robot Masters are done with their test run here on this island the real fun starts. Next stop being Barijumoa." He turned away from them and began to type at the keyboard, the screen now changing several times in quick succession.

"Isn't that your hometown though? A place with old buddies or something? I saw the pictures in your upper lab." Hideo had already reached into his coat and pulled out several bombers while Rock was preparing his arm cannon.

"All in the past. They banished me from that place years ago because my human experiments were apparently too grim. Well I'll show them the pinnacle of scientific genius with my unstoppable Robot Masters. Of course, Wright didn't know about this, but when he started to get a little too nosy for his own good I had him taken care of. Now it's time I do the same for you two." He hit one final key and a wall spun open revealing a rather large machine with a humanoid shape. It had a bulky appearance and stood at about fifteen or so feet tall. Riley smiled and climbed into a cockpit and began to take control.

"Awesome! I want one!" Hideo shouted which got him a smack on the head from Rock's metal arms.

"Now really isn't the time." He snapped out of it and nodded his head. "Yeah, you're right. Besides, this old guy's got it all wrong. No way that the members of my crew would lose to some machines so there's no way I'll do the same."

Pulling back on a lever, the giant mechanical suit rushed forward and swung down at the two who quickly dodged. The force of the blow was more than enough however to completely destroy the spot they were standing in moments ago.

Haze was in town looking at her foe, Steelman. The guy had been standing in the same spot for about five full minutes at this point, even the mechanical birds had begun to perch themselves on his head by this point. "Um, aren't you supposed to do something?"

Beads of sweat began to pool down the Robot Master's face. "Gah! She's spotted me!" He jumped back and pulled out several saw blades in preparation for a battle. "It seems you have quite the keen eye. People usually fall for my 'I'm just a statue' disguise. Very very very clever girl you are!"

She sweat dropped and readied her nodachi. "Um, thanks? I guess?"

"Don't mention it." With that he rushed forward, throwing several saw blades that Haze managed to avoid, but didn't realize how quickly he had already managed to close in on her. Lifting one of his huge metallic fists he grabbed the nodachi and lifted it up in the air along with its user before throwing them both across the street.

The blade wielder managed to get back on her feet however. "I guess that's about as far as your strength goes. That armor is pretty sturdy though." Steelman raised an eyebrow and charged in again, this time with several saw blades spinning around his fist ready to tear at Haze.

She remained perfectly still and began to flow pink energy down from her body and towards her blade. "Dai-Hana-Kai!" The two blade carriers had passed each other during their respective attacks, backs now facing each other. "Well well little miss, this is the second time you've impressed me. Not only keen eyes but great with a sword. You would've been a great addition to my crew."

Several bleeding wounds had appeared on Haze's torso but didn't seem to bother her. Her nodachi was shining with energy as the blade had a rather fierce aura of energy mixing with both red and pink. "You're pretty good yourself. I would've loved to face you on better terms." Steelman chest had a much deeper cut into it than Haze's and he was struggling to stand by this point.

"Same here…" He lost consciousness and hit the ground.

"Atomic Fire!" Scorchman let loose several volleys of fireballs at the Crimson Hammer, each one stopped by Ursa's own body in his full bear form. "Persistent one aren't you, Smokey? I'll enjoy watching you burn to a crisp as well however.

"I've already let too much harm come to this ship. Can't let you go around burning the thing to the ground." His fur and skin was baked a bit, but overall he seemed fine and still in condition to fight. Shifting to hybrid form he rushed forward and took a hold of Scorchman's box like body, embracing him in a tight bear hug. "Kuma Crusher!" He began to squeeze tighter and tighter.

The Robot Master seemed to be struggling due to his incredibly small size, but not afraid in the least. "Bad choice there, Smokey." Flames began to sprout from all over his body that consumed both his own and Ursa's form. The zoan user seemed like he was ready to keep on going but quickly released the robot and got away, desperately trying to put out the flames.

"I'm just too hot for you to handle, now burn to the ground!" Several stream of fire shout out from his palms at the shipwright. Although he managed to move in time to avoid being hurt the boy knew it would be impossible to run forever. He needed to counter somehow. It was then he spotted the enormous pieces of lumber they had picked up earlier for the sip repairs.

Grabbing one he managed to use it as a shield from the flames long enough to get back into close range combat, the range he was most suited for. "Bear Claw!" He cut at the flamethrowers at Scorchman's wrist. "And Diamond Claw!" He growled, this time slashing several times in to the robot's chest leaving a diamond shape before landing a devastating kick that sent the machine flying back.

His breathing was growing heavy by this point, but it seemed like it had been a job well done. Scorchman clambered back on his feet and attempted another blast of flames but his body seemed to internally combust. "I decided to fight fire with fire." Ursa managed to say in between breaths as he shifted back to human form. "With those last few attacks I purposely cut at your fuel lines. I figured a pyromaniac like you couldn't resist attacking again with those flames." Scorchman was now rolling around in the sand, attempting to put out the flames, which was actually pretty funny considering his body was shaped like box.

Ursa exhaled deeply and fell back to the ground. Looking up he could see a hand offering him a lift back up. It was Froggy as well as the rest of the crew. But what was odd was that not only were they there but it seemed that the townspeople and even the defeated Robot Masters were along with them.

Takato looked out over the horizon in the direction of Riley's lab. "Good job protecting the ship. Now, we have to get to the lab and end this once and for all…"

There was another explosion as the giant mechanical form housing Riley stumbled backwards. Hideo and Rock leaped out of the smoke, not perfectly unscathed but still in fighting condition. "Glue Bomber!" Hideo shouted and tossed several of the white sticks of dynamite right at the shoulder joints of the machine. As they collided the sticky substance kept them from functioning properly. "There's your opening Rock!"

The blue teen nodded and leaped forward landing an earth shattering blow to the chest area and even leaving a decent hole in it. Riley frowned and flipped a switch from inside the cockpit. A small cannon appeared from the robot's shoulder and blasted the tiny blue fighter away from him. By this point it seemed the glue had been cleaned out and the robot's arm were in full use again.

Hideo had already rushed to the boy's side and was helping him back on his feet. "Alright, I need you to get me in close. If you can do that I'll be able to plant a bomb in that hole you made it. As much as it kills me to blow up something so awesome, it has to be done." Rock got back on his feet and nodded. The gray haired teen pulled out another bomber and jumped on his shoulders.

"Wait, what the hell are you doing? I said I'd help you get up there, not let you ride me like a jockey and horse!" Hideo opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the rocket heading their way. "Shutup and dodge!"

The rocket whizzed past them as Rock leaped to the side and began racing forward. "Join me Rock." Riley began to speak. "You've proven worth enough to be a part of the Robot Masters, you can help me fulfill my goals. Besides, you're just a robot, mankind would never accept you anyway."

"Robot or not, I'm more of a human than you'll ever be!" The scientist shook his head and took hold of the controls once more.

"That's too bad, now I'll have to scrap you." Several more rockets were fired their way, but Hideo managed to intercept them with his rockets bombers. Next Riley fired off one of the Robot's fist, but Rock managed to avoid this with swift movements of his own. Finally was a huge sweeping attack with the remaining fist, one they surely couldn't avoid.

Rock tossed Hideo in the air and blocked the fist despite it being the size of his own body or even larger. With a tight grip on it he looked to Hideo. "Finish the job." Coming back down from his toss, the Crimson Bomber landed on the robot's arm and began to run up until he got to the torso. "Grand Crimson Bomber!" He threw the lit stick of dynamite into the chest cavity and began his sprint away from the destruction.

The explosion had been so great that it actually sent the two of them to the ground by the sheer force. Pieces of metal and machinery were scattered across the lab that had already been ruined by their battle. All that remained from the robot suit however were the legs that sparked and fizzled for a while before hitting the ground uselessly.

Riley climbed out of the rubble, attempting to make his escape but found Rock's cannon staring him dead in the face. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't put an end to you here and now Riley."

"Rock, don't do it." A feminine voice called. Roll was now standing between the scientist and the blue clothed fighter. Now at the entrance of the hidden lab was also everyone else from town, including the Robot Masters and the Crimson Storms alike. "It's never hard to find a place where you've fought, Captain, gero." Froggy said, noting all the destruction and explosion that were audible from in town.

"Hey, what can I say? I love what I do. But what's up with you guys bringing them along. More specifically, the Robot Masters." Takato stepped forward to reply but Swiftman cut him off and hobbled forward to Riley.

"The game's over, man, but you don't even remember how it started do you?" Everyone but Takato and the townsfolk looked at him rather oddly. By this point Wright had gotten up and walked over to there they were talking.

"Dr. Wright. You're awake, and you're hurt!" Rock said, pointing to a gash on the old man's arm that strangely wasn't bleeding. Instead however there seemed to be several loose wires hanging out from the cut. Riley's eyes shot open at the sight.

"This is impossible. There's no way you're a machine. We've been friends and colleagues since Barujimoa." Wright shook his head and pulled Riley to his feet.

"No, I'm nothing more than a replacement built by you. The real Dr. Wright died before even reaching this island." The doctor seemed to be awestricken as well as the Crimson Storm pirates with the exception of Takato. "You were banished from Barujimoa for human experimentation, which was wrong, but you did it for the right reasons. You only cared for everyone's safety, so the real Wright followed you when you decided to leave. He hoped that together an alternative could be found but contracted a sickness on the way to the new island you were searching for and died."

"Once that happened you built me, a replacement that barely managed to anchor you with your remaining sanity. Once we landed here however you continued to fill that void by rebuilding the town you two came from. Artificial people, animals, and friends just to regain your sense of security. Unfortunately, after time your sanity slowly slipped away and behind my back you continued the human experiments, using pirates that managed to find their way here as your subjects for the Robot Masters for your goals of revenge…"

During this whole time no one had said anything. "Wow, so everyone on this island but Riley is a machine?" Was all Hideo managed to get out, Wright nodded in response. "That is so freaking awesome!"

Riley kept his eyes on the ground trying to recall all Wright had told him, slowly, piece by piece, the memories all came floating back to him. It was true, and at this revelation he couldn't force back the tears, they all came rushing forth and fell to the floor splashing against the metal. "I'm…I'm so sorry…"

Two days had passed since the battle against Riley and his Robot Masters. They had all been repaired and since then were working their hardest on repairing the damaged caused to the town. It seemed like Riley's wrongs had been forgiven he was genuinely working towards making this island a better place such as when he originally landed, he even sent them a few robots to help the crew repair the ship.

The Crimson Hammer now departing, they began to wave goodbye to them all, Rock, Roll, Race, Riley, Wright and even the Robot Masters. "Thanks for everything! We'll be sure to come back and visit one day!" The Crimson Bomber called back as the island slowly disappeared over the horizon. With their adventures done on the island of machines they now followed the log pose to the next island of the Grand Line and bringing each one of them closer to their own dreams for the future.

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Phew, man that's the longest thing I've ever typed. Hope that makes up for the 2-3 weeks wait on it though; it was a joy to type even though it took forever. Now, for anyone who somehow didn't catch on, the game this was based off of was Megaman 2, old classic game and pretty fun.

I actually came up with an idea for this long time ago, like back before the crew even met up with Froggy, but couldn't think of a way to fit it in. Later on I thought about making a NWB movie and this seemed like it would fit in perfectly. I was afraid of it being too similar to the 7th One Piece movie during the planning phases, but said screw it and went ahead with the idea anyway and enjoy the way it came out.

Now, if you'd like to see something funny that also inspired me to go ahead and do this then go on Youtube and check out the Megaman 2 rap by Duane and Brando. It's about 7 minutes long and worth a good laugh, so check it out if you like.

Anyway, I think that's about it. I hope everyone enjoyed and will leave some great reviews. Next update we get back to the main story and the first Grand Line island! There will also be a poll for the next chapter so you can look forward to that as well.


	33. The First Stop

Alright folks, I'm back to bring you this NWB goodness you crave. Sorry for the absence, the movie honestly wore me out for a bit and I suffered a bit of writer's block. Fortunately, once I got my thoughts organized on paper (something I forgot existed for a while) everything came rushing back. I honestly can't wait to get some of these Grand Line arcs started. If you thought the story was great before then you haven't seen anything yet. Hope you'll forgive me for a bad title for this chapter though, I made up for it with the arc title though, right? :^D With that said, let's get going!

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**New World Bound**

**Chapter 33: The First Stop**

**An Island Under a Salt

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**

"Ow ow ow ow!"

Cried out the gray haired captain of the Crimson Storm Pirates as their ship moved steadily though the waters of the Grand Line. It had only been a couple of weeks since their initial arrival, and things had gone relatively well. Though it had taken a while their next destination was drawing near and they'd be touching shore in less than half an hour. Of course, if everything was going so great, then why is their captain making such a ruckus?

"C'mon Doc, you think you could be a bit more gentle? I bruise like a fruit." He complained as Froggy continued to pull away some bandages, these from his ribs. The medic of the ship wiped the sweat from his brow and sighed. By this point Hideo only had the cast around his right arm and one on his right leg as well. Although some areas of his skin still displayed signs of the burns he received they were recovering as well.

"Quit being baby and be happy he was able to fix you up in the first place." Julie slapped Hideo in the back hard enough for him to stumble to the floor and writhe in pain. He hadn't taken a slap to the back like that since his last meeting with Captain Manly. It was a feeling that was all too familiar and would never be forgotten. The martial artist looked over to Froggy now, who seemed to be in the corner talking to himself.

While he was actually talking to one of his frogs, this wasn't visible to the rest of the room. His face was turning a bright shade of red. _"Groovy! She defended me and even complimented my work. I must be making some sort of progress!" _

She peered over to his side in order to get a better look. "Um, what are you doing?" At the sound of Julie's voice he jumped out of shock and accidently tossed the sleeping amphibian across the room. Smiling nervously, he said, "Er, nothing, gero…" The fishwoman gave him a look that said she wasn't buying it, but decided to let it go.

Hideo was standing back to his feet now, still using the crutch to get around due to the pain in his casted leg. "Well, I think I'll head back on deck now. We should be arriving soon. Oh, and thanks for the help Froggy. Don't know what I'd do without ya." He began to hobble towards the door, but the turquoise haired boy cut him off.

"Don't forget what I told you, Hideo. Don't do anything reckless and don't ever use that bomb again, under any circumstances." The captain pouted and folded his arms, nearly losing balance and falling over in the process but he remained upright.

"Aw, come on. It was just one little boom. I've taken many in my years of work." Froggy's face grew a bit more stern and dire, an attitude that was uncommon for him.

"As the doctor on board this ship I'm putting my foot down on this issue. Take that bomber as lightly as you want to, but you got lucky, the damage caused could've been much worse. If the same were to happen I don't think I'd be able to put you together again and I won't let a patient of mine be harmed because of my neglect. So you will listen, got it! Gero!" Hideo had shrunken down in the teen's powerful presence. It seemed there was no way to budge Froggy on this issue and he knew it.

"Of course, you're right." Those were the only words Hideo muttered before heading up stairs. Julie laughed and started to head up as well. "Nice one, Frog Boy. You know, I didn't think you had it in you. Very sexy." With that, she was gone as well. Froggy's face turned an even brighter red than before as his knees started to give from under him.

"Is there a doctor around here, gero?" He fell to the floor.

Although he had a bit of trouble with the stairs, Hideo clambered up to the top of the ship and met up with rest of the crew on deck. "Lord Katsua, good to see you in better form. We just finished docking the ship." Relieved by this, Hideo took in a deep breath of their new surroundings, hoping to get some fresh air, instead he just ended up gagging and choking.

"Gah, what's up with this place, the air is so…"

"Salty?" Julie chimed in from behind; taking the log pose out to be sure they were at the correct location. Sure enough the need le was resting and pointing directly at the island in front of them. "Alright, our first island. Welcome to White Sand Island."

Just as the name would imply, the island was an enormous expanse of white sand with structures just barely being visible in the distance. The sun was shining intensely on the entire of the island and the members of the crew were already beginning to sweat. "What's up with this heat though? The temperature was so much more bearable less than an hour ago?" Ursa added while fanning himself off.

Julie shrugged, still studying the island from what they could see from the shore. She didn't even bother to turn towards him while answering. "That's the Grand Line for you. You always have to be able to expect the unexpected. Seriously, you guys came here without even the slightest clue of how this frightening place works?" The other four pirates looked at each other for only a moment and simply nodded in response. The navigator sweatdropped, "Just my luck."

"Alright crew, time for our first adventure in the Grand Line!" The Crimson Bomber shouted as he prepared to jump over the side of the ship, but was grabbed midway by Froggy which caused him to hit the wood flooring. "What did I say about doing reckless things, gero?"

Julie folded her arms and shook her head. "There's no reason for us to leave this ship anyway. Despite its name, this stuff isn't even sand. It's actually salt. Which means that this island's main export is probably that stuff. The climate is horrible, the salt in the air seems to be getting stuck in my gills, and we don't even own the appropriate clothing for this sort of climate. Besides, the log pose should be able to reset here from shore."

Two men in desert clothing immediately jumped aboard the ship, grinning like there was no tomorrow. "Did we hear you say you wanted to buy some desert gear?" They both said in unison, salt falling from their clothing and spreading out on the deck. Just the sight of this was already causing Ursa's eye to twitch. Julie seemed to feel similar anger, but for other reasons, this was evident by the vein on her forehead.

"See. Problem solved." The captain responded as the two men opened a rather large case and revealed several different colored robes as well as other desert essentials. "Any of these lovely fabrics can be yours for a small price: an essential for crossing this dangerous expanse in a comfortable manner." The salesmen spoke in a unison fashion once again. Julie shook her head once more. "Sorry we won't be…"

"We'll take six." She was cut off by the voices of Hideo, Haze, and Ursa.

"What did I just say!" The fishwoman blared out angrily, but by this point the deed had been done and the salesmen were back on their small merchant ship, sailing away from the island. She looked at a receipt lying on the ground and picked it up, upon sight her eyes went wide. "What the hell! How could you guys spend 500,000 beli on clothing! That's highway robbery!"

The three of them shrugged while checking out their new desert gear. "I don't know about you Julie, but being cooped up on that ship for weeks is driving me nuts. Besides, this should be fun; I've never visited a desert before." Haze spoke out in her usual happy go lucky tone. She had now disappeared to the inside of the Crimson Hammer in order to change.

Hideo handed everyone else what they would be wearing as well before moving on to change. "Come on. We're in the Grand Line; we shouldn't spend this time just sitting in the ship."

Ursa followed him. "I should see about getting a new mast for the ship anyway after the old one was lost and seeing as we dropped of Clayton and his guys a few days ago we don't have anyone to paddle the ship unless we do it ourselves. A chore everyone hates." The martial artist sighed, the crewed outweighed her opinion in the matter and she'd just have to follow along with it.

A short amount of time had elapsed and everyone in the crew but Julie and Haze had emerged from the ship in their new clothing. Hideo was of course in red robes while Ursa was in blue and black and Froggy was wearing a tan robe with a bit of green. Takato on the other hand was stationed on the ship. Hideo had ordered him to stay and watch the ship this time. They'd be pretty far away from the Crimson Hammer this time around so someone to take watch was a necessity. The fact they still had the Den Den Mushi from the Davy Back Fight also made communication a lot easier.

"What could be taking them so lo…" Ursa began to speak, but stopped and his face went red. Froggy and Hideo were confused by what had happened, but turned around to see what was going on. Julie and Haze stepped out from ship while wearing dancer outfits. Needless to say, they were all red in the face now.

"So, how do we look? Scks that those salesmen only had these for girls." The three of them were still frozen in place just from the sight which soon angered the girls. "You three are thinking something perverted aren't you!" Haze swung the sheath of her nodachi in a wide arc and managed to knock out all three of them in one blow.

Julie gave a thumbs up. "Nice swing!"

Now sailing away from the island, the two salesmen were starting to count their cash. "Hey, Brother, maybe we should have warned those kids about that island before leaving?"

The other simply put away his own share of the profit in his pockets and shrugged it off. "Hey, fools will be fools. As long as they have money, I don't care. It's their own fault for taking one of the most dangerous deserts in the Grand Line without preparing…"

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Man, this chapter was way too short and I really feel like it was rushed so I apologize for that. I was in a bit of a hurry to get this chapter out to you guys before the busy portion of my week started. Next chapter we'll get to have a chapter with plenty of events and length.

Now, I have two favors to ask of you guys. The first is for any willing and I'm not requiring it. I could probably go through and do it myself, but if someone will volunteer that would be so much help. Anyway, does anyone mind going through the story and sending me the all of the attacks used by the main cast and a short description (like 1 or 2 sentences). I used to have a list, but I seemed to have misplaced that.

The other favor is a much more fun one! On my profile page there is now a poll to vote for your favorite member of the crew. I'll keep the poll open for the next five chapters or so and you only get 1 vote, so make sure it counts! The winning character will likely get something special. I haven't decided what, but only time will tell.

That said, see you next week my lovely readers~


	34. Author's Note

**A Short Note From the Author**

Hello people, long time no see, I know. Just decided to put this up to assure you I'm not dead and do intend on continuing the series as well as to get a few things off my chest. I figure since you're my readers and have decided to stick around I should at least be upfront and honest with you guys.

Alright first and most obvious is why haven't I been updating? Good question little Johnny, here's a cookie. Now, this is the second semester of the school year and of course, I'm dragged down by academic related things as well as extracurricular activities. Of course, I admittedly still do have the free time to update this story every once in a while, but here's the thing. I'm just going through a temporary loss in motivation. Now, I'm not angry at anyone, but please don't bug me about it with annoying messages (and no, I'm not referring to the fans who politely asked and were kind in conversation). This is a story I enjoy and one of the best parts is reading your reviews every time I finish a chapter. It's really enjoyable to spend hard time working on something and receiving praise and even suggestions and how to make things better. It really just makes the whole experience that much greater.

As much as I like it, this is just another extra activity for me. It's something I do for my own enjoyment, your enjoyment, and as a form of expression in a sense. Oda may be able to update weekly, but that's his career and this is just something I do for fun. If I'm really not feeling it then I won't do it. "But Crazyman, what about the readers?" Well, as much as I love you guys, that's just how it is. Although each chapter is only a few minutes of reading for you guys, it's actually hours and hours of hard work for the authors. Planning, typing, dialogue, editing, etc.

I don't know, maybe I'm just more stressed than usual around this part of the year and I'm being overdramatic, but I figured I may as well put this out and not leave you guys in the dark. I don't really like having an entire chapter set up just for an author's note, so I'll probably remove this once I do update again.

Now, let's hear some good news, like dates you can expect updates. School isn't out for me until June 2nd, but even after that in the following weeks I have my SAT and ACT tests. To put it simply, expect it sometime in June, and when I return I'll definitely return big with updates in large chunks. Thanks for reading, and until then, seeya later guys

~Crazyman321


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